Press Releases

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – August 10, 2017 – Deleana OtherBull, Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women (CSVANW) Executive Director, has been named one of the recipients of the Native American 40 Under 40 awards by the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development’s (NCAIED).

The prestigious award was created in 2008 to acknowledge emerging Native American, Alaska Native and First Nation members between the ages of 18 and 39 who demonstrate leadership, initiative, dedication and achieved significant contributions in business and Native communities throughout North America.

After becoming executive director in November 2014, OtherBull (Crow and Northern Cheyenne) increased the Coalition’s operating budget from about $240,000 to $700,000. She also diversified funding, reducing CSVANW’s reliance on a sole federal source and supplementing it with grants from private foundations and corporations, as well as individual donors.

Staffing and programming has also increased under OtherBull’s leadership. The CSVAWN team now consists of eight staff and four consultants, including a youth coordinator, a sexual violence coordinator and a recent hire, a sex trafficking coordinator, who assists advocates, social workers and law enforcement in providing supportive services to Native victims of prostitution rings. Under OtherBull, CSVANW also has been asked to help create national training and engagement models for service providers working with Native youth. The organization is also leveraging its partnerships to help coordinate the first statewide, grassroots tribal taskforce on human trafficking.

The Coalition is an Albuquerque-based nonprofit that works to deliver technical assistance, policy advocacy and training to tribes and tribal organizations in the prevention of violence and sexual assault. CSVANW members include both Native and non-Native American organizations working with tribal members in New Mexico, Northern Arizona, Southern Colorado, Southwest Texas and Southern Utah.

“I am humbled and honored to receive this recognition and join current and past recipients that I have long admired and respected. For us at the Coalition, this speaks volumes about our strong organizational leadership and the impact that our team is contributing to our communities. CSVANW is made up of passionate, driven and committed professionals, and it is an honor to serve alongside them in this movement to end violence,” OtherBull said.

The award is among recent accolades for OtherBull, who is a graduate student in the University of New Mexico’s Executive MBA program and a participant in Emerge New Mexico, a training program for Democratic women who plan to run for political office. She has been selected as the 2017 New Mexico Young Professional of the Year and named the 2017 Albuquerque Young Professional Woman of the Year by the Professional Business Women Association of New Mexico.

OtherBull, a resident of Albuquerque and a single mother of a 2-year-old son, is an active board member of the New Mexico Community Foundation’s NewMexicoWomen.org and the Native American Professional Parent Resources, will be presented with the award during the Native American 40 Under 40 and Scholarship Awards Dinner on September 6 during NCAIED’s Northwest Enterprise Development Conference in Tulalip, WA.

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