Dr. Elizabeth Rule is an enrolled citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, and is an author, policymaker, public scholar, and advocate for Indigenous communities.
Based in Washington, DC, Rule specializes in Native American Studies as an Assistant Professor at American University, and has previously held positions as a Social Impact Resident at the Kennedy Center, Obama USA Leader, and director of the George Washington University’s Center for Indigenous Politics and Policy and Native American Political Leadership Program. From 2023-2025, Dr. Rule was appointed to Governor Kathy Hochul’s Executive Chamber as the first Deputy Secretary for First Nations in the history of New York State: a policymaking position dedicated to the support of Indigenous sovereignty, and self-determination, and the highest-ranking Indigenous affairs role in the State. She is the founder of the Guide to Indigenous Lands Project and creator of the Guide to Indigenous DC.
She published her award-winning monograph, Indigenous DC: Native Peoples and the Nation’s Capital, in 2023 with Georgetown University Press. Her second monograph, Reproducing Resistance: Gender-Based Violence, Reproductive Justice, and Indigenous Storytelling across Turtle Island, and edited volume, LandBack Universities, are both forthcoming in 2027 with the University of Minnesota Press.
A prominent public speaker, Rule has presented her research in more than 150 public speaking engagements, reaching audiences across more than a dozen countries around the world.
Rule received her Ph.D. and M.A. in American Studies from Brown University, and her B.A. from Yale University.