Jerry Bread
Program Administrator II,
Native American Studies

Native American history is as synonymous to Oklahoma as the Dust Bowl or Toby Keith, but for Dr. Jerry Bread, helping to establish OU's Native American studies program in 1995 meant working through some preconceived notions.

"We were classified as if it was 100 years ago by a lot of people in the state and coming into the state, like they had heard nothing about Indians except what they had seen on television," Bread says. "I decided I wanted to spend the rest of my career teaching Native concept courses."

With both a M.S. and Ph.D. in education administration from OU, Bread has worked extensively with the Cherokee Nation, served as director of OU's American Indian Institute, director and founder of the College of Education's American Indian Teacher Corps, Mentorship Program for Minority Students, and the Foundations in Native Education Graduate Program. Bread grew up in Lawton during the civil rights era and is a member of the Kiowa tribe.

"I think we were privileged to experience some of that growing up in our formative years, in grade school through high school," Bread says. "That's what kind of set me in this route right now that I am on, which is the rights of students and the rights of minorities as far as today's concerns."

Even his children and grandchildren have picked up Bread's passion for Native American rights and education, graduating with degrees in Native American studies. Bread says he is proud of the growth the program has made and has high hopes for its continual successes.

"Hopefully in the future, we'll see the products, the fruition of our efforts in the form of our students coming back, students making an impact on the affairs of the Native people in this state and this country," Bread says. "I think in the minds of the Native communities, the tribes in the country and the tribes in the state and the urban Indian people, that this is the premiere institution for that type of development. I feel that we've accomplished that in the minds of the people."