Amy Locklear Hertel, PhD, JD, MSW

Amy Locklear Hertel is a citizen of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina and a descendant with close ties to the Coharie Indian Tribe. She is currently the Executive Vice Provost at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Clinical Assistant Professor at the UNC School of Social Work. Hertel’s research and practice centers indigenous knowledge and values as an asset to inform social and political action, leadership, and community development, as well as inclusion and engagement across cultures. Her work is informed by the worldview of the indigenous communities she is from as well as those she has partnered with over the years in North Carolina and beyond. Formerly serving as Chief of Staff to two chancellors at UNC-Chapel Hill, Hertel was appointed as a co-captain to the first strategic initiative in the university’s strategic plan, Carolina Next: Innovations for Public Good. That strategic initiative called Build Our Community Together reflects her experience in bringing people together in community around a common self-determined goal. Before joining the Chancellor’s Office, Dr. Hertel served as the second director of the UNC American Indian Center, where she collaborated with faculty across a variety of disciplines to participate in meaningful and reciprocal community engagement as well as research with native nations. Dr. Hertel attended UNC Chapel Hill, where she earned a BA in Communication Studies, and Washington University in St. Louis, where she earned her MSW, JD, and PhD in Social Work.