Randy Ross

Biography:
(En Español)

Ross is an enrolled member of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska and a descendent of the Otoe-Missouria Tribe of Oklahoma with family roots on the Rosebud Indian reservation in South Dakota. He is the currently the Tribal Affairs Coordinator/Project Coordinator for the American Distance Education Consortium (ADEC) which is housed at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln (www.adec.edu). ADEC is a consortium of 60 land grant universities and colleges. His work at ADEC focuses on outreach to tribal clients adapting to wireless technology, hybrid networks, and educational effectiveness.

Ross served as the Executive Director, Indian Center, Inc. in Lincoln, Nebraska September 1998 through December 2000. The Indian Center is a multi-purpose Native American community development corporation specializing in jobs training, low income housing, youth programs, senior services, and other health and human services programs.

Previous work experience includes several years of independent consulting; and 10 years of federal government service. From 1986 to 1993, Ross worked with the Epidemiology Research Division of the Aberdeen Area Indian Health Service as a Management Analyst.

Ross has a long dedicated track record working with the Native American community on the arts, technology, education, community economic development, and health-related projects across the country. Ross has served for several years as a technical assistance provider for the Administration for Native American, a federal agency that grants federal funding for socio-economic development.

Since 1989, Ross has served as Non-Trustee board member for the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. assigned to the Information Technology committee; he is a current member of the Mayors' Multicultural Advisory Committee, City of Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska; and a Board member for the Lincoln Lancaster Board of Health. Ross received undergraduate training in business administration and small business management; and has ten years federal government work experience serving as a Management Analyst for the Epidemiology Research Division, Aberdeen Area Indian Health Service. He has extensive field experience to include honorable military service. He is an accomplished speaker/presenter on issues involving Native Americans and emerging new technologies. In 1999, he served as a co-author for a Benton Foundation report on Native American technology (www.benton.org).

Email: rross@neb.rr.com or rross2@unl.edu