Nedra Darling is a citizen of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation. For over 15 years, Nedra has served as the Public Affairs Director for the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs at the Department of the Interior. She plays a key role in shaping the public’s image of DOI and its leadership as the Indian Affairs addresses programs such as Indian gaming, trust funds management, restoring tribal homelands, federal acknowledgement, energy, economic development and Indian education.

More importantly Nedra is promoting broader recognition and understanding of American Indian and Alaska Native people.  She has produced several memorable events, including the Pentagon ceremony honoring the last living World War II Comanche Code Talker, the honoring of the First Lady Michelle Obama during her visit to the DOI and the formal apology by former Assistant Secretary Kevin Gover for the war on Indian people and their culture that the BIA waged in earlier years.  She also established the DOI’s Hall of Tribal Nations, which is lined with tribal flags in honor of the federal government’s relationship with the 567 federally recognized tribes.

Before joining the Department of the Interior, Nedra established the nation’s first American Indian media center at the Institute for American Indian Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she directed and produced several award-winning videos.  She also co-produced the Peabody and Emmy award winning PBS Special, “Surviving Columbus,” which told the story of the Spanish Conquest of the Pueblo Tribes.

In 2010, Nedra received the Americans for Indian Opportunity’s (AIO) Eugene Crawford Memorial Peace Pipe Award for her lifetime achievements, particularly her dedication and contributions to Indian Country and ensuring future opportunity for Indigenous peoples.  She has served as an advisor to the national College Horizons Program, Iroquois Nationals Lacrosse Program and was a founder and current advisor of AIO’s Ambassadors Program and the Keiko Fukuda Judo Foundation.