Joshua Barnett

Joshua Barnett is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, a federally recognized Native American tribe. He has more than a decade of experience in public affairs, developing and implementing communication plans for a wide range of audiences and topics at the federal, state and local level.

Josh currently serves as the director of the Office of Public Affairs – Indian Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Interior, where he leads communications for three federal bureaus. He previously served as the deputy public affairs director at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service's Indian Health Service and as the communications director for a member of the New Orleans City Council. He was also enlisted as a public affairs specialist in the Army National Guard, where he supported emergency operations for the Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness as well as deployed to the Balkans to provide public affairs support for multi-national peacekeeping efforts.

An alumnus of the Media + Design program, Josh holds a Bachelor of Arts in humanities with a minor in journalism from Tulane University and a Master of Science in public policy and management from the Centre for Financial and Management Studies at SOAS, University of London. He is currently enrolled in the Indigenous Health PhD program at the University of North Dakota.