As president & CEO of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC), Carrie designed and implemented strategic initiatives, advocated for new and modified federal, state, and local policy and programs, and forged partnerships and coalitions. An enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, she has dedicated more than 25 years to ensuring that American Indian and Alaska Native students are given the resources they need to stay successfully on an academic track.As AIHEC’s top executive, Billy had a deep understanding of and support for the organization’s mission to ensure excellence in TRIBAL higher education. Under her leadership, AIHEC secured nearly $1 billion in covid-19 relief funding for the 35 TCUs, over $80 million in additional operating support to “forward funding” for TCUs and well over $300 million in mandatory funding for TCU institutional development; established AIHEC AIMS, a comprehensive data collection system to which TCUs report annually—ensuring their accountability to tribal communities and funders; developed the Indigenous Evaluation Framework, which incorporates Indigenous epistemology and tribal values in a framework that integrates place, community, individual gifts and sovereignty with Western evaluation practice; and launched initiatives to engage Native students in advocacy and leadership. Billy works closely with the TCUs to achieve AIHEC's strategic vision and priorities: Institutional advancement to sustain the Tribal College Movement; performance accountability to provide standards, processes, and TA necessary for TCUs to be accountable premier higher education centers; strengthen communities and improve the capacity of TCUs to serve students, families, and tribal nations; and student engagement to increase Native student completion and success through high quality, culturally relevant, and holistic and integrated education, research and support programs.

Carrie Billy was appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1998 to serve as the first executive director of the White House Initiative of Tribal Colleges and Universities. In this role, Billy is recognized as leading initiatives that resulted in historic changes to improve TCUs’ capacity and increase American Indian student success. Her emphasis on integrating TCUs into U.S. federal programs and strengthening the institutions’ partnerships with the private sector resulted in the largest funding increases ever received by TCUs in annual federal appropriations; the establishment and funding of new education and infrastructure programs in several U.S. federal departments—including the National Science Foundation’s Tribal Colleges and Universities Program, which has led to more than $130 million in STEM funding at TCUs; and the creation of a public-private facilities initiative involving the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Education, and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that has transformed TCU campuses into state of the art learning centers. Billy’s tireless efforts also influenced President Clinton to become the first U.S. president to visit a TCU.

Earlier in her career, Carrie Billy served as a senior staff member to U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman, (D-NM) where she focused on Indian Affairs, health policy, judicial issues, and education. It was during this time that Billy first began working with TCUs—overseeing the enactment of a key vocational education program for selected institutions as well as securing ongoing support and funding for the nation’s only institution of higher education (Institute of American Indian Arts) dedicated to promoting and nurturing American Indian Art. In 1994, Billy also helped craft legislation designating TCUs as “Land-Grant Institutions,” which opened new doors of opportunities for the institutions in agriculture, land-use, and community development. Additionally, Billy’s unyielding belief in increasing educational opportunities for all underserved students also led her to work on legislation that created the Hispanic-Serving Institutions designation—adding these institutions to the list of Minority-Serving Institutions that receive federally-supported opportunities and resources from the U.S. Department of Education. Billy also worked on a number of key health policy issues, particulalry rural health care access, health care for underserved populations, health promotion and disease prevention, including nutrition issues; civil and human rights, including women's rights and judicial reform; as well as various education issues.