BFCC | Presidents Message

Welcome

Oki níkso’kowaiksi (my relatives),

As the college embarks on its 50th anniversary since becoming a tribally-chartered community college in 1974. It is important to recognize what this institution means to our community and the thousands of graduates who have been granted the opportunities to receive a higher education, here at home, continuing to grow and beat as the intellectual and cultural heart of the Blackfeet Nation.

It is our “Universal Community,” as stated in our mission, that continues to drive the direction of this college, as we strive to “remember our past, build our future,” in the spirit of advancing the Niitsiitaapi world of knowledge. As we continue to actively shape and strive to co-design the academic and workforce landscape of the Blackfeet Nation. Our programs and services are continuously adapting to encompass the trends and challenges faced by our unique communities and it is through the work of our faculty and staff that students have access to resiliently accomplish personal and professional goals through higher educational experiences that lead to meaningful employment opportunities.

In our community, abroad and internationally, our student’s work is reaching north into the Blackfoot Confederacy and interest in our offerings have encouraged our neighboring communities to see the college as a place to attain the basic skills needed to be competitive through expanded rural educational access. Under the direction of our stakeholders, we will offer more online courses than ever before as part of furthering the future growth potential of our physical campus and human infrastructure, to accommodate for more two and four-year degrees, relevant workforce development and enhancing our community education programs.

This catalog also signals another milestone for the college, as we also celebrate 30 years of our 1994 Land Grant status, as we strive to integrate the educational growth of our students and the community, through higher educational enrichment and research that incorporates the land, language and our abundance of natural resources into experiential learning, innovative teaching and scholarship development needed to enhance lifeways of the Blackfeet Nation.

We are an institution who welcomes everyone to visit, enroll and obtain post-secondary culturally-grounded community of support and enrichment, that matches individual educational goals with community engagement as the college’s core commitment to those we serve.

We welcome you to build your success here at Blackfeet Community College, as it is inextricably tied to the success and future vision of our community.

Warm regards,

Brad Hall, EdD
President
Blackfeet Community College

Brad Hall
BFCC President

BFCC President

Dr. Brad Hall is a Blackfeet educational leader, historian, and researcher who was raised on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation outside of Browning on his family's ranch. He had committed his early career to improving education systems on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. Dr. Hall is a graduate of Montana State University-Bozeman with a Bachelor’s degree in History (2008). Dr.Hall from 2009 until 2013 served as a 7-12th grade Social Studies Teacher and as Interim Principal for the Heart Butte School in Heart Butte, Montana. These formative experiences led him to pursue and receive a Master’s degree in Education (2012) at Montana State University-Bozeman.

Dr. Hall from 2013 until 2019, served in an administrative position at Blackfeet Community College (BFCC) in Browning, Montana as the Institutional Researcher. In that position, he focused on improving institutional effectiveness. Dr. Hall also has served as the Chair of the Blackfeet Nation Institutional Review Board (BNIRB) from 2017 through 2023, a regulatory body that approves research activities on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation and ensures that their activities are beneficial to the Blackfeet Nation's land, resources, and its people. Dr. Hall functioned as a resource for tribal college faculty and administrators working to enhance culturally-based programs and practices in Pre-K through higher education settings, on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation and around Montana.

Dr. Hall earned his doctoral degree in Educational Leadership from Montana State University-Bozeman in summer 2018. His dissertation was entitled, “Piikani School Leadership,” a culturally-based study which focused on helping school leaders on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation to align their leadership practices to Piikani values, as guiding principles in practice for serving Pre-K-14 students, teachers, staff, parents, and the community.

Dr. Hall from October 2019 to October 2022 served as the Tribal Outreach Specialist at the University of Montana in Missoula where he worked to provide Native students access to four-year degrees (and beyond) through pathways designed in collaboration with tribal colleges and high schools around Montana. Dr. Hall’s outreach to other tribal communities has been vastly expanded through his presentations nationally and publications involving research, culturally-based pedagogical approaches, and leveraging cultural values to promote best practices in tribal, educational, and other community leaders around Indian Country.

In October 2022, Dr. Hall was named President of BFCC, where he brings an expanded view of higher education and seeks to ensure that the college operates and serves our community through the guidance of the Blackfeet Nation and our ever-expanding service area.

For more information about Dr. Hall’s educational experience and continued scholarly work, please review his Resume and Curriculum Vitae Link here