Aaron Bird Bear (Mandan, Hidatsa & Diné - citizen of Three Affiliated Tribes) served as the inaugural Director of Tribal Relations at the University of Wisconsin–Madison from 2019-2023. Bird Bear came to UW–Madison in 2000 as the American Indian Student Academic Services coordinator and later served as an assistant dean in the UW-Madison School of Education. From 2018-2023, Bird Bear served as co-Principal Investigator for an educational research project, Indigenous Learning Lab, addressing Ojibwe youth in Wisconsin. While at UW-Madison, Bird Bear co-created the UW-Madison First Nations Cultural Landscape tour and WisconsinFirstNations.org to help PK-12 educators teach the 12 Native Nations of Wisconsin. Bird Bear earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington-Seattle and a master’s degree from UW–Madison.