Brayboy Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy Dean Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy, the Carlos Montezuma Professor, was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation's oldest and most prestigious honorary societies.
Brayboy, Northwestern's first Native American dean and a citizen of the Lumbee tribe, studies how Indigenous people learn, teach, and see themselves within larger systems of power — work that has been recognized and cited by scholars around the world.
In addition to Brayboy, Joseph T. Bass, Charles F. Kettering Professor of Endocrinology and Metabolism and director of the Center for Diabetes and Metabolism at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine, was also elected to the Class of 2026. His laboratory investigates how circadian clocks coordinate metabolic processes across tissues, with implications for obesity, diabetes, sleep loss, aging, and cardiometabolic disease.
The collective breadth and depth of the new members’ excellence “is a fitting commemoration of the nation’s 250th anniversary,” said Academy President Laurie Patton. “The founding of the nation and the Academy are rooted in the inextricable links between a vibrant democracy, the free pursuit of knowledge, and the expansion of the public good.”
Brayboy and Bass join luminaries who cross disciplines and divides and have distinguished themselves in academia, the arts, industry, policy, research, and science. New members include actor and filmmaker Jodie Foster, immunologist Alan J. Korman of BlueSphere Bio, Harvard psychometrician Andrew D. Ho, and author Colson Whitehead.
Brayboy, an education anthropologist, is well known for his rich theoretical grounding and rigorous research methods, as well as his humor, humility, and genuine enthusiasm for his work.
His most influential scholarship is Tribal Critical Race Theory, or TribalCrit, a groundbreaking framework he developed in 2005 that examines how race, power and Indigenous tribal sovereignty intersect.
He recently delivered the American Educational Research Association Distinguished Lecture, one of the signature events of the 2026 AERA annual meeting. His speech argued for a shift from a scarcity mindset — where some must lose for others to win — to an ideology of abundance, where freedom, self-determination, and full civic life are available to everyone.
"What if we committed to agendas of an abundance of freedom?" Brayboy asked. "Of choice? Prosperity? Of being seen? We can do this. Our future demands it."
In 2023, Brayboy received the George and Louise Spindler Award from the Council on Anthropology and Education for a lifetime of work shaping the educational anthropology field, K-12 schools, and higher education.
A member of the National Academy of Education and a fellow of the American Educational Research Association — where he was elected to the Council and Executive Board in 2024 — Brayboy is the author of more than 110 scholarly works, including 10 edited or authored volumes, articles, book chapters, and policy briefs for the Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, and the National Academy of Sciences.
He co-authored the study “Ethnographic Methods: Training Norms and Practices and the Future of American Anthropology," which was the most-read article of 2024 in American Anthropologist, the flagship journal of the American Anthropological Association.
Marlene Tromp, president of the University of Vermont, called Brayboy "one of the most innovative, humane, compassionate, and values-driven leaders" she has ever known. "He has not just envisioned courageous paths for positive change, but built them and walked them, bringing others along to do great good," she said.
Tromp and Brayboy collaborated at Arizona State University on projects aimed at advancing education and improving well-being."I have always admired and valued him; the world needs thinkers and leaders like Dr. Brayboy now more than ever," she said. "This honor and recognition of his impact on so many is well-deserved."
Over the course of his career, Brayboy and his team have prepared more than 165 Native teachers to work in American Indian communities and mentored 43 American Indian PhD recipients.
Brayboy earned his bachelor's degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his master's and PhD — awarded with distinction — at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the father of two sons.
“I'm truly honored to be elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences," Brayboy said. "This recognition belongs as much to the brilliant students and colleagues I've been lucky enough to learn from and work alongside throughout my career. It affirms something I’ve always believed: that curiosity, careful listening, and the freedom to explore what matters to you is its own reward — and the foundation of everything universities exist to do.”
The School of Education and Social Policy now has 10 members in the academy. In addition to Brayboy, they include:
- Megan Bang, James E. Johnson Professor of Learning Sciences
- Cynthia Coburn, Margaret Walker Alexander Professor of Human Development and Social Policy
- Larry Hedges, Board of Trustees Professor of Statistics
- Kirabo Jackson, Abraham Harris Professor of Education and Social Policy
- Carol Lee, Professor Emeritus of Learning Sciences and Education
- Doug Medin, Professor Emeritus of Education and Psychology
- Morton Schapiro, President Emeritus
- James Spillane, Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Professor in Learning and Organizational Change and Social Policy
- Uri Wilensky, Lorraine H. Morton Professor of Learning Sciences and Computer Science
Induction ceremonies will take place in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in October 2026.