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Human Rights Educators USA: Dr. Alex Red Corn Receives 2023 O’Brien Award for Human Rights Education

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November 29, 2023

Human Rights Educators USA (HRE USA) announced today the winner of its 2023 O’Brien Award for Human Rights Education, Dr. Alex Red Corn, Coordinator for Indigenous Partnerships and Co-Chair Indigenous Faculty and Staff Alliance at Kansas State University.

Established in 2015 in memory of Edward O’Brien, pioneer human rights educator, the O’Brien Awards annually honor outstanding contributions to human rights education (HRE) in the United States. The 2023 award will be presented to Dr. Red Corn as part of HRE USA’s virtual Human Rights Day Celebration on Thursday, December 7, at 4:00 ET.* 

Alex Red Corn, 2023 O’Brien Award Winner 

Dr. Alex Red Corn is a citizen of the Osage Nation in what is now Oklahoma. He is an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at Kansas State University (K-State) in what is now the state of Kansas, historically home to many Native nations. Dr. Red Corn specializes in teaching qualitative research courses and shares his research about the needs of American Indians in education in the university setting and well beyond. 

In addition to his full-time university position, he serves as Executive Director of the Kansas Association for Native American Education (KANAE), whose mission “is to support, promote, and advocate for the unique educational needs of American Indian/Alaska Native students, families, nations and educators in Kansas.” He has collaboratively created the Osage Nation Educational Leadership Academy, and he serves as the K-State Indigenous Faculty and Staff Alliance co-chair. He is also the Chair of the new Kansas Advisory Council for Indigenous Education Working Group (KACIE-WG). 

Dr. Red Corn’s passion for advocacy and education has taken him across Kansas as well as across the country. He has helped current and future educators reexamine curriculum and resources to dispel myths and reframe thinking by including past and present Native American contexts. His work clearly reflects his belief in education as a means for social change. He has said, “Once people start learning and peeling back the labels, that’s when the actual change starts to occur.” 

One nominator said of him, “He brings together communities to learn [and] urges educators to move beyond land acknowledgements to taking action: ‘Do you actually want to improve learning about Indigenous peoples and nations? Or are you just trying to check a diversity box? To go beyond the acknowledgement and make them meaningful, we need to have action to go with it.’” 

Dr. Red Corn’s own words best summarize his dedication to this work: “Just as our ancestors have always done, we are persistent in asserting our rights to exist as a people. Our persistence must triumph [over] the pernicious status quo we are constantly enduring, because our future depends on it. So we press on.” 

HRE USA is proud to honor Alex Red Corn for his commitment and service to human rights education in the United States. 

*The HRE USA Human Rights Day Celebration on December 7, 2023 at 4 pm ET: Registration link.

Learn more about –

HRE USA: https://hreusa.org 

O’Brien Human Rights Education Awards: https://hreusa.org/awards-and-grant-opportunities/edward-obrien-award/

Press release contact: nancymaryflowers@gmail.com

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