CAA News Today

CAA is delighted to announce Shelly C. Lowe, Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, as the 2024 Convocation keynote speaker during the organization’s 112th Annual Conference in Chicago.  

Chair Lowe is a citizen of the Navajo Nation and grew up on the Navajo Reservation in Ganado, Arizona. From 2015 to 2022 she served as a member of the National Council on the Humanities, the twenty-six-member advisory body to NEH, an appointment she received from President Obama. Lowe’s career in higher education has included roles as Executive Director of the Harvard University Native American Program, Assistant Dean in the Yale College Dean’s Office, and Director of the Native American Cultural Center at Yale University. Prior to these positions, she spent six years as the Graduate Education Program Facilitator for the American Indian Studies Programs at the University of Arizona.  

Lowe has served in a variety of leadership roles nationally, most recently as a member of the University of Arizona Alumni Association Governing Board and of the Challenge Leadership Group for the MIT Solve Indigenous Communities Fellowship. She has served on the board of the National Indian Education Association and as a trustee on the board for the National Museum of the American Indian.  

Lowe holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, a Master of Arts in American Indian Studies, and has completed doctoral coursework in Higher Education from the University of Arizona.  

AC2024 Convocation will be held on Wednesday, February 14, 6:30–8 p.m. CT at the Hilton Chicago. This event will also be livestreamed on YouTube.  

Register now for the CAA 112th Annual Conference, February 14–17, 2024 in Chicago!