Tracy’s Vision for CNAY

Shekoli and Hinsci – greetings everyone!

If there is one thing I’ve learned over the course of my career – serving Indian Country from within the federal government, championing youth nonprofits and as a classroom teacher – it’s that Native youth drive powerful change. As a Native-led nonprofit, guided by youth every step of the way, the Center for Native American Youth (CNAY) has solutions to the issues our communities – especially our youth – are facing.

I am thrilled to join the CNAY as the new Executive Director. I come to this role motivated to stand beside our youth as we find ways to drive change that will make our communities stronger and healthier for the next seven generations.

We are in a critical time where youth leadership is needed more than ever. CNAY already works alongside Native youth who are motivated to address the crises affecting all of us – global climate change, the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Peoples epidemic, child welfare systems, access to basic health care needs, language revitalization, education and more. 

As we look to the future, CNAY must continue to provide Native youth with leadership and advocacy programs, while also ensuring meaningful opportunities to sit at the tables where national policy agendas are set. Native youth are motivated, and many already have the answers we need to drive change. It is our job to ensure they are valued and heard, and that their ideas are uplifted to help shape the future of Indian Country. Equally important, we must provide educational opportunities to ensure youth understand their sovereignty – both as individuals and members of a Tribal community. 

I hope to bridge my past experiences together by ensuring CNAY is a space where key decisionmakers, including Tribal leaders, connect with Native youth to not only advance policy agendas, but remind them of their inherent power, strength and wisdom. 

There is no tomorrow without our youth. 

Send me an email if you’d like to get involved and ensure this vision becomes reality: tracy.goodluck@aspeninstitute.org 

Yaw^ko and Mvto. Thank you,
Tracy Canard Goodluck
Executive Director, Center for Native American Youth

ABOUT ME

I am new to Team CNAY, but I am not new to this work. I first moved to Washington, DC in 2014 to work as a Presidential Management Fellow (PMF) for the Department of the Interior. Through PMF, I had the opportunity to complete two details to Obama’s White House where I was first introduced to CNAY and the Champions for Change. Since that time, I have been fortunate enough to stay engaged with CNAY initiatives in my various roles with the federal government. Most recently, I was a Presidential appointee under the Biden Administration and served as the Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs at the Department of the Interior.

Prior to my government work, I co-founded the Native American Community Academy, supporting Native youth identity through language and culture, holistic wellness and leadership opportunities, and was Director of Organizational Advancement and Youth Initiatives at Americans for Indian Opportunity, each in my hometown of Albuquerque. I have also been a classroom teacher and school administrator on the Navajo, Hopi and Tulalip reservations. I have a JD and Certificate in Indian Law from the University of New Mexico, two master’s degrees in education and graduated from Dartmouth College in Sociology with an emphasis in Native American Studies.

I am an enrolled member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin (bear clan) and Mvskoke Creek, belonging to Thlopthlocco Tribal Town (bird clan). I am the great-granddaughter of Roly Canard, former Principal Chief of the Mvskoke Creek Nation of Oklahoma, and a descendant of Chief Daniel Bread (Oneida). I am also German and Dutch through my mother.