Anpao Duta Flying Earth
Executive Director
NACA Inspired School Network
Anpao Duta Flying Earth (Lakota, Dakota, Ojibwe, Akimel O’odham) is the former Executive Director of the Native American Community Academy (NACA), a charter school in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the current Executive Director of the NACA Inspired Schools Network (NISN), a network that assists communities in implementing structures of Indigenous education. Duta assisted in the creation of the charter school in 2006 and the network in 2014.
In his capacity as Executive Director at NACA & NISN, Duta has been instrumental in representing NACA as a premiere example of Indigenous education nationwide that combines academic preparation for higher learning, grounding in culture & identity, and holistic wellness together for community transformation through young people. He has been named as a Pahara Next Gen fellow, a Pahara-Aspen fellow, an Albuquerque 40-under-40 recipient, and a W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Leadership Network fellow.
Duta grew up on Standing Rock Reservation in South and North Dakota. Duta is the youngest of three siblings and a third-generation college graduate. He graduated from Cornell University with a B.A. in Government and earned a Master’s in Business Administration as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at the University of New Mexico.
Overview
NACA Inspired Schools Network (NISN) is a network of Indigenous Education schools founded around ideals of holistic wellness for indigenous communities. In 2020, NISN launched the Stronger Together COVID-19 Relief Fund to provide emergency funds to over 1,500 families. With the EdLoC x No Kid Hungry grant funding NISN will build upon the work they started in 2020 further engaging indigenous communities around food access and agency, and around regenerating indigenous food security and sovereignty.
Through their workshops they will engage Indigenous communities in preparation of fresh Indigenous foods, share information, and grow community understanding of food sovereignty and the connection of healthy food to holistic wellness. Additionally, NISN plans to engage college-bound high school students in how to access healthy food while they are away from home, understanding how to access resources such as SNAP, and how to set personal health goals.
