Mattie Harper DeCarlo

Mattie is a grantmaking officer for the Bush Foundation. She focuses on the 23 Native nations in Bush’s grantmaking region and works across all Bush programs to help find and select the highest potential ideas from communities throughout the region that can lead to high-impact investments for Bush. She manages a portfolio of grants and is active in community conversations to understand the impact of Bush’s support.

Mattie is part of the grantmaking team and is ready to talk with people who have ideas or questions about any Bush programs or other opportunities Bush supports.

Mattie joined Bush in 2021 and is a citizen of the Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe. She has extensive experience in public history and higher education.

Mattie worked for the Office of Governor Walz and Lt. Governor Flanagan as the assistant director of Tribal State Relations Systems Implementation. She was the senior historian at the Minnesota Historical Society, where she coordinated research projects, facilitated the incorporation of new scholarship into interpretive programs and was a lead exhibit developer for the first permanent gallery on Native American history at the Minnesota History Center. She also designed and taught courses in Native American and Indigenous Studies at UC San Diego as an assistant professor.

Mattie is an avid reader and gets out on hikes with her family, while also traveling through Ojibwe country. She lives in Stillwater with her husband and 2 young children.

Additional experiences and leadership

• Ph.D., ethnic studies, UC Berkeley
• Bachelor’s degree, Hamline University