NSBA’s National American Indian and Alaska Native Council of School Board Members (AIAN) presented its 2021 Luminous Eagle Award to two former AIAN committee chairs on Friday during the Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE) Annual Conference in Atlanta.

In thanking his council peers for the award, David Snyder, a former school board member representing Wyoming’s Fremont County School District #21, stressed the importance of NSBA’s Equity Councils and urged all conference attendees to become members. “Join all the councils,” Snyder said. “I’ve always said as I’ve talked to different people, ‘You don’t have to look like me to join the council.’ All you got to do is serve those students, and if you do serve them, this is a great place to be able to find those resources that you need.”

Rodney Schilt, president of the board of Oklahoma’s Adair Public Schools and a past president of the Oklahoma State School Boards Association, is this year’s other Luminous Eagle Award recipient. He noted that “the work of the councils is very tedious. You guys that have been on these councils, you have done this work, and you understand the small, incremental advances you take. It takes a long time.”

Proudly identifying himself as a great-grandson of a Cherokee woman belonging to the Wolf Clan, Schilt expressed his gratitude to the award committee: “I’m just so humbled and so thankful, and it’s just amazing. Thank you.”

The Luminous Eagle Award is sponsored by McGraw-Hill Education, a learning science company that delivers personalized learning experiences that help students, parents, educators, and professionals improve results.