Gene Thin Elk is a Sic’angu, C’okan-Towela Band, Lakota and enrolled member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe of South Dakota. He is the Director of Native Student Services at the University of South Dakota and is the originator of the Red Road Approach — a culturally-based, therapeutic recovery and wellness model based upon Lakota, Dakota and Nakota indigenous cultural life ways and teachings. During the past three decades, Thin Elk has utilized the Red Road Approach in his services consultations, healing and cultural training work with numerous Native Tribal Nations, Corporations, Rancherias and Pueblos, and has advised and consulted with major universities, banks, hospital, and corporations as well as with the United States Army Psychiatric Hospital and Sanford Health’s Health Disparities Research Center. His work has garner national recognition including Time Magazine’s Top 100 People of the Year, Newsweek’s New American Heroes and as a Who’s Who in Business World Wide. In 2012, Gene work was acknowledge with the Dr. George Blue Spruce Jr. Award presented by Pathways Into Health at the 2012 Achieving Excellence, Harmony, and Balance Conference. Thin Elk received his BA and MA in counseling from the University of South Dakota.