Shawn Watts

Director, U.S. Indigenous Guardians Network
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Shawn Watts has dedicated his entire legal career to Indian law, mediation, and negotiation. In addition to his role with ILI, he serves as Director of the Tribal Law & Government Center, Tribal Judicial Support Clinic, and Mediation Clinic at the University of Kansas School of Law. He teaches Mediation and Negotiation for Law Practice at Columbia Law School where he previously served as the Associate Director of the Mediation Program. Watts taught a Native American Peacemaking Clinic at both Columbia Law School and Yale Law School before becoming the Director of Strategic Initiatives and U.S. Strategy at The Christensen Fund.

As a law professor, Watts specializes in helping tribal courts to integrate traditional and customary tribal justice practices. In addition to his work with Indian tribes and tribal organizations, Watts is also a lead trainer and formal partner with the United Nations Institute of Training and Research where he trains and advises world diplomats on the issues facing the world's Indigenous Peoples. He also provides the U.N. training and curriculum on conflict resolution, negotiation, and peace dialogue.

Watts graduated from Columbia Law School, where he won the Jane Marks Murphy Prize for clinical advocacy, was a Strine Fellow, a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and managing editor of Columbia Law’s Journal of Law and Social Problems. While in law school, he served as the president of the National Native American Law Students Association.

A citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, Watts served as a district court judge for the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation.