Lucille Echohawk

Strategic Advisor for Indian Child Welfare Programs, Casey Family Programs

Lucille Echohawk is Strategic Advisor for Indian Child Welfare Programs, Casey Family Programs, the nation’s largest operating foundation entirely focused on foster care. Lucille is a member of the Pawnee Tribe. She earned a B.A. degree at Brigham Young University and a M.Ed. at Loyola University of Chicago. Lucille is a founder and former Board Chair of Native Americans in Philanthropy, an affinity group to the Council on Foundations. She is also a founder and former Board Chair of the Denver Indian Family Resource Center, where she and her family established the Jewel LittleSoldier EchoHawk Memorial Endowment Fund in remembrance of her daughter, whom Lucille adopted from the public child welfare system when Jewel was seven years old. Lucille currently serves on the executive committee for the Child Welfare League of America’s Board of Directors. She also serves on the American Humane Association’s Board of Directors and its children’s advisory committee.

Lucille participated in the Leadership Denver Class of 1986, served as President of the Leadership Denver Association in 1991–1992, and received the LDA Outstanding Alumnus Award in 1994. She has received numerous other awards, including the 1999 Martin Luther King Social Responsibility Award in Denver, the Ambassador Award from Casey Family Programs in 2002, the Pioneer Woman of Color Award in 2004 from the National Organization of Black Elected Leaders, the Louis T. Delgado Distinguished Grantmaker Award from Native Americans in Philanthropy in 2007, and the Founders Alumni Award from Erikson Institute for Early Education in 2007.

She was an Honors Graduate of Farmington High School, Farmington, New Mexico, in 1961. She received honorable mention in graduating from Brigham Young University’s College of Education in 1965. In 2009 Lucille was honored by Farmington High School and her name included on its Wall of Honor.