University of Denver Spring 2025

Walking in Different Worlds Janelle Doughty (MSW ’04), DU’s Four Corners Master of Social Work program director, equips students to navigate the complexities of working in tribal communities.

Durango

T hen, as the director of the U te M ountain U te Indian T ribe’s S ocial S ervices D epartment, she supported U te M ountain U te youth who were in D enver residential treatment facilities. W hen she learned that the Colorado Board of E ducation did not recognize the non - accredited diploma that they and non - tribal students received in treatment, she worked with the local board of education to come up with a way to test the tribal youth that allowed them to receive an accredited high school diploma. In 2009 , she was appointed to a three - year term on the Colorado Commission on Civil R ights by G ov. Bill R itter. G iven that experience and her extensive work with tribal communities, D oughty now tailors the Four Corners program to serve N ative practitioners and communities throughout the region and beyond, including students coming from places like O klahoma or Alaska. Bridging cultures T he Four Corners program, which has local fi eld education in J icarilla Apache, N avajo N ation, S outhern U te and U te M ountain U te nations, offers several courses speci fi c to N ative American contexts. T hey include policy related to historical issues like boarding schools ; federal policies on the environment ; cross - cultural values in Indigenous communities ; and a 10- day immersion course on the S outhern U te, U te M ountain U te and N avajo reservations. D oughty ensures course content is relevant to all students — the 25% of students who are Indigenous as well as non -N ative students planning to work in tribal communities. In addition, a third of the course includes material related to rural social work and working with Indigenous communities. “I talk about walking in different worlds. T hese tribes are very different. W e’re not similar to each other,” says D oughty. “For folks coming in, I really want them to understand their role as they walk.” T o help faculty who may not have the background knowledge to incorporate relevant material, D oughty draws upon the Four Corners N ative advisory board and her own network cultivated by decades in social work, bringing in tribal leaders, prosecutors, tribal enrollment experts, public defenders and health care professionals.

W hen J anelle D oughty mentors students passionate about social work, she encourages them to “walk in different worlds” — a challenge to understand, navigate and advocate for cultures different from their own. As an enrolled member of the S outhern U te Indian T ribe and N avajo from the R ed R unning in the W ater Clan, it’s something she does daily — maneuvering between different Indigenous communities and the predominantly D oughty, a graduate of DU ’s fi rst Four Corners MSW cohort in D urango in 2004 , became its director 15 years later, using her expertise to guide students in caring for N ative communities. P rior to joining DU , D oughty spent decades using her social work background to navigate the complexities of tribal and federal systems. A relentless problem solver who asks the right q uestions, she worked with the federal government to create processes for prosecuting non -N ative criminals on tribal lands. Collaborating with the U . S . Attorney’s O f fi ce in D enver, she helped establish a system to cross - deputize tribal police of fi cers, allowing them to make arrests on both the reservation and federal lands. H er work was so non - Indigenous world. A problem solver

instrumental that she testi fi ed before the Committee on Indian Affairs in W ashington, D .C.

“It was fun getting out of my little tribal bubble and onto a national level,” she says, “to get other U . S .

attorneys that have Indian Country in their districts to work with those tribes

so their tribal police will have the ability to arrest and move those cases to the federal system.”