Zachary Shaw, Giving Back to Native Communities As an NDOT Liaison Worker
As part of our #workersofreno series here’s a feature by Kelsea Frobes on 30-year-old Zachary Shaw, who has always been involved with Native communities.
After graduating from Spanish Springs High School, Shaw moved to New York to pursue a bachelor’s in linguistics at the University of Rochester, then moved to Arizona for work with Native communities there. Now, Shaw once again resides in Northern Nevada and is currently a Rural County and Tribal Liaison in the Nevada Department of Transportation’s (NDOT) Planning Division.
Shaw says that finding his current job “was an awesome opportunity [to] move back home and to be closer to family.” For Shaw, being able to give back to the communities that he grew up around and help them with any transportation-related issues is a point of pride.
Nevada includes 17 counties; 14 of them are considered rural. In his position, giving a voice to these communities and making sure their transportation needs are met is a large part of what his division does. In an effort to meet the needs of those they work with, Shaw’s division hosts meetings between planning staff and county staff, gathering information on their transportation needs. After evaluating the needs, Shaw and his team work to make these needs come to life through various projects.
As a tribal liaison, Shaw refers to himself as the “bridge between the Native communities and the state.” Because state highways or interstates run through or nearby tribal areas, Shaw and his team make sure that as many voices as possible are heard at the transportation planning table. To complete his job successfully, Shaw says he has to be the master of planning and a jack of all the other trades within his department. “I have to learn not only about how to plan a project, but [I] also have to understand if there's scoping involved, or hydrology or traffic operations; I have to know a little bit about everything in our department,” he said.
“I enjoy it every single day because I'm able to give back to both my tribal communities and to rural Nevada,” he said.
Although Shaw has worked in the Planning Division for less than two years, he said his division has been able to make changes in several rural and tribal communities in the limited time he’s been employed there. “Watching a tribal community really flourish and take on a project on their own, and be able to help them with that.. [is] a really cool experience to be part of,” he said. Shaw continued that working with tribal communities and educating them on the complex world of Nevada’s transportation system makes him happy. “It's such a big department, and there's so many moving pieces that it's awesome to kind of take it all apart and be able to kind of show everyone, you know, this is what we do, and this is how projects are delivered,” he said.
Recently, Shaw’s division launched a new tribal training for all Department of Transportation employees and consultants. The training is aimed at providing the history of the relationship between tribal nations and the government. According to Shaw, the presentations explain what tribal engagement is supposed to look like and educates people on Native terminology including what sovereign nations are and the difference between a colony and a reservation. The training also attempts to educate employees and consultants on the best practices to use when speaking to tribal communities. “In today's day and age, it's really important to make sure that we're staying [politically correct” for everybody and I'm really proud that we're able to roll such a great training out,” Shaw said.
The training is required for all employees and consultants to take and will be a required refresher course every three years. “I know we're one of the first state departments to kind of roll out that kind of training, so we're excited about that," Shaw added.
Shaw is a member of the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, belonging to the Paiute, Washoe and Shoshone Tribes. Born and raised in Nevada, Zachary Shaw has always been surrounded by Native communities and is proud of his family’s heritage.
“They help us out so much, whether it's child care, whether it's providing medical assistance, whether it was growing up and even just having a place to play basketball,” Shaw said of being a member of the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony.
He continued, saying that as a kid, the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony often provided him with summer activities, offering a similar setup to the Boys and Girls Club, where parents had the ability to drop their kids off for the day. Shaw even got to go on trips to play travel basketball in Los Angeles and in Seattle. “It gave me a lot of opportunities to see the country,” Shaw said.
Working with Native communities is part of his family’s heritage. Shaw’s mother is the Director of Indigenous Relations at the University of Nevada, Reno. He said his mother is the one who encouraged him to go back to school. “...and so I was sitting in class…trying to get my Master's in Public Administration… and an NDOT guy came in and was like, “hey you guys, NDOT has hundreds of summer internships, you guys should look into this. [He said] It's a great opportunity, a great place to build your career…” and that's kind of what [struck] my interest in NDOT,” Shaw said. Shaw added that after looking on NDOT’s website, he saw an opening for the tribal liaison position, which he then applied to.
When reflecting on his current role with NDOT, Shaw said he is happy to be able to fully express being Native. “I don't feel like I have to shy away. When I'm in the workplace I feel like my team around me, from my peers to my mentors, they're always helpful and engaging, and they lift me up, and I want to do the same for the people I work for as well,” he said. “So whether it's the rural communities or the tribal nations, I feel like if I can just help them and support them in any way I can and make sure everyone has a seat at the table, well, that's what I strive for every single day.”
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