As the first director of the University of Connecticut’s Native American Cultural Programs (NACP), Newell plans to set up an Indigenous cultural center and encourage better mental health awareness for Native students. “I want support to be an integral part of the infrastructure we build,” he says. “It is a new day at UConn for Native people, and I get to be in the middle of it all.” A citizen of Maine’s Passamaquoddy tribe, Newell started his job earlier this fall. An instructor and tribal community member-in-residence at UConn since 2022, he’s all in to broaden the reach and scope of the previously student-run program with the help of university funding.

Newell majored in Native American studies but left the College in 1995, citing mental health struggles and poor representation of Native culture. “It felt like Native students were only welcome in certain spaces on campus,” he says. He earned his bachelor’s from UConn in 2014, but even there Newell felt Native Americans weren’t well represented until 2018, when a group of students created the NACP. “The pitfalls he experienced studying at both Dartmouth and UConn have significantly helped him resonate with the Native students and support them in a more meaningful way,” says Sandy Grande, a professor of Native American and Indigenous studies at UConn. 

For six years Newell served as education supervisor at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, the world’s largest Native American museum. A member of the Mystic Singers drum group, he has emceed pow wows around the country and helped revive Dartmouth’s Pow Wow after the pandemic. “Having an alumnus as master of ceremonies means that we can really educate students about the legacy they’re taking part in,” he says.