Heather Shotton
President | Fort Lewis College
Dr. Heather Shotton is a citizen of the Wichita & Affiliated Tribes and is also of Kiowa and Cheyenne descent. She is the President of Fort Lewis College (FLC), a public, liberal arts college located in Durango, CO. Prior to her role as President, Dr. Shotton served as the Vice President of Diversity Affairs at FLC, where she provided strategic leadership in advancing access, belonging, and student success across campus. She led the development FLC’s groundbreaking reconciliation plan, acknowledging and addressing the institution’s history as a former federal Indian boarding school. Her leadership has positioned FLC as a national model for institutions seeking to reconcile with their past while advancing equity and student success.
She is a nationally recognized leader in higher education with more than two decades of experience in student affairs, academic leadership, and institutional administration. Her career has spanned small liberal arts colleges and large public research universities. Before joining FLC, she was Chair of the Department of Educational Leadership & Policy Studies and the Director of Indigenous Education Initiatives in the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education at the University of Oklahoma. As a scholar of higher education, her scholarship and practice have been dedicated to bringing visibility to Indigenous people and addressing issues of equity in higher education. She has co-edited multiple books, including Beyond the Asterisk: Understanding Native Students in Higher Education and Reclaiming Indigenous Research in Higher Education. Her contributions to higher education have been recognized with national awards, including the Mildred Garcia Senior Scholar Award from the Association for the Study of Higher Education and the National Indian Education Association’s Educator of the Year Award.
As a first-generation college graduate, Shotton is a passionate advocate for the transformative power of higher education. She remains steadfast in her belief in institutions of higher education to serve as catalysts to build communities, empower future generations, and shift local, state, and national landscapes.
