Tane Ward PhD is a consultant, strategist and movement organizer with over 20 years experience working in diverse communities for social progress. He has been a director, lecturer, organizer, commissioner, writer and manager in a variety of fields - but at heart Tane is a teacher, and brings an educational aspect to all of his work. Tane is a strong and passionate orator, writer and an expert at crafting language so that the most complex ideas reach the most people.
• Spanish Fluent
• Training & Facilitation
• Exceptional public speaker
• Community Organizing
• Fundraising
• Management & Supervision
• Mentorship (peer & youth)
• Campaign strategist
• Project Management
• Cultural work
• Writer and editor
• Non-Violent Communication
Areas of professional expertise:
Race and racism, justice, environment, planning, climate, police brutality, community organizing, housing, Native and Indigenous issues, democracy, gentrification.
Employment History
Equity Consultant: Tane Ward LLC. (2019-Present)
Recent Change management and Equity training provided for: Harris County Climate Justice Plan; City of Austin (COA) Watershed Protection Department; Harris County Engineering Office; COA Parks and Recreation Department; COATransportation Department; Asian American Resource Center of Austin; Preservation Austin; West Street Recovery; University of Texas Austin’s English Department; Coalition for Equity and Environmental Resilience; Creative Action; COA Equity Office; COA Sustainability Office; North American Students for Cooperation
• Provide curated facilitations for strategy, messaging and planning
• Deliver custom presentations on wide-range of social topics
• Design and perform Anti-oppression training
• Decolonial theory and praxis in writing, speaking and management
• Advise on organizational restructure and management using equity lens
• Mediate conflict and provide Nonviolent Communication strategies
• Write comprehensive reports outlining assessment and suggestions
• Support management in how to best deal with cultural change
Lead Facilitator of the Texas Energy Justice, Equity and Democracy Coalition (2022-Present)
• Manage team of 5 facilitators
• Develop strategy, messaging and planning for statewide environmental work
• Facilitate bi-weekly meetings
• Manage and direct 2 yearly gatherings
• Coach directors, managers and movement leaders in management
• Conflict Resolution and Healing
Senior Organizing Manager (South Central US): Sierra Club (2014-2019)
• Directly supervise a regional team of 5-8 organizers across the South both in 1 on 1 and teams; oversee all aspects of community, campaign & movement building
• Direct statewide, regional and local campaigns (multiple simultaneously) on a day-to day basis over years - always values-led and culturally relevant
• Produce written messaging and manage communication with long/changing arcs
• Serve on the Staff Equity Team creating national policy on racial & gender equity
• Serve on the National Dirty Fuels Leadership Team developing national priorities on all work related to extractive industries
Interim Regional Organizing Director: Sierra Club (2017-2018)
• Manage and mentor 5 managers
• Develop curriculum for and implement trainings for managers and organizers
• Participate in organization-wide change management process
• Set national organizing strategy as part of the Senior Organizing Team
Executive Director - Indigenous Cultures Institute 2012-2014
• Write funding grants
• Establish relationships with allies and collaborators
• Forward organizational mission
• Oversee cultural programs
• Give presentations to universities and community groups
• Serve as “face” of the organization
Lecturer, Anthropology Department - University of Texas at Austin – 2013
• Teach between 20-200 students
• Develop unique curriculum on social justice, race and gender
• Mentor students in organizing and scholarship
Political Advisor, Confederación Indígena Tayrona, SNSM, Colombia 2011-2012
• Advise leadership of indigenous community of 30,000 people
• Organize distinct indigenous tribes with a unified strategy
• Develop strategy for resistance to mines, ports, dams, roads
• Provide legal and policy analysis across cultures
Education
2014 Ph.D. – Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin Social Anthropology, Native American & Indigenous Studies
2008 MA – Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin
2006 BA – Latin American Studies, University of Texas at Austin
Boards & Committees
2017-2018 Charter Review Commission for the City of Austin Co-lead on Democracy Voucher and Independent Ethics
2015 – Present Vice-President - Nasaru: Development for Underserved
2013 – 2018 Organizer, Founder - Undoing Racism Austin
Publications
2024 Broken to Mend – Poems; Alamo Bay Press
2019 The Maze of Creation: An Alchemists Guide to the Center Little Crow Press
2014 The Inauspicious Monster Inside the Sacred Fortress: Colonial Multiculturalism and Indigenous Politics in Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Dissertation published through UT Library
2009 East Austin Mosaic: the Shape and Color of Gentrification, University of Texas Online repository
2008 Neoliberalism versus Cosmovision: An Indigenous Alternative to Modernist Development in Colombia’s Sierra Nevada Mountains, ILLASA Student Conference paper, Lanic e-text collection