Lippes Mathias is pleased to announce that Bryan C. Shade, a member of our Indian law practice team, moderated two panels at the 2024 Tribal Self Governance Conference, which was held April 15-18 in Chandler, Arizona. The panels were titled Where's the Money? Tracking Funds from Appropriations to Delivery and Recovery Fund Compliance Update: Enhancing Tribal Programs through Effective Grants Compliance.

Panel one featured co-panelists Jillian Curtis, director of the Office of Finance and Accounting at the Indian Health Service; Willeen Yazzie, financial analyst at the Office of Tribal Self-Governance, Indian Health Service; Jason Freihage, deputy assistant secretary for management at the Department of the Interior; and Rufina Villacana, financial specialist at the Office of Self-Governance, Department of the Interior. The panel explored the process of disbursing funds associated with self-governance agreements.

Panel two focused on grants management and compliance, essential aspects of tribal operations, with speakers sharing insights on maintaining grant compliance and optimizing grant workflows for better service delivery. The panel included Jennifer Parisien, policy advisor at the Office of Tribal & Native Affairs, Department of the Treasury; Josh Jackson, policy advisor at the Office of Tribal & Native Affairs, Department of the Treasury.

Bryan C. Shade concentrates his practice on advising tribal clients on issues ranging from gaming and economic development to self-governance and self-determination and claims settlement and litigation. He is an experienced federal Indian law attorney who has represented tribes and Indian Country in a variety of roles on both sides of the federal-tribal table. Shade formerly served as an attorney/advisor for Indian Affairs at the United States Department of the Interior where he advised the assistant secretary – Indian affairs, the deputy assistant secretaries for Indian affairs for management, policy, and economic development, director, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Office of Tribal Self-Governance on various issues relating to the federal trust responsibility to tribal nations. In 2021, Shade was appointed by Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland to represent the department on the PROGRESS Act Negotiated Rulemaking Committee. Prior to serving in the Department of the Interior, Shade previously served as self-governance general counsel for one of the largest federally recognized tribes in the U.S. as well as executive director of tribal operations and federal programs director for his tribe. He has a demonstrated history of serving Indian Country and is a frontline expert on the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (ISDEAA) and other critical areas of federal Indian law. The Oklahoma Bar Association’s Indian Law Section presented Shade with the inaugural G. William Rice Award in recognition of his commitment to and excellence in the field of federal Indian law. He is an enrolled member of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma and resides in Rockville, MD, with his wife and two daughters who are citizens of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and who are of Chickasaw and Mississippi Band of Choctaw descent.