A combination of high energy and respect for learning distinguish Eric Chastain. He already has two master’s degrees—one from the University of Southern California (USC) and one from the University of Texas—and a doctorate in social work, also from USC. He is currently finishing work on a master’s degree in the legislative affairs program at the George Washington University.
Last year, he retired from the Army with the rank of command sergeant major (CSM) after 28 years of service, having left a job in the White House not long before. Six months ago, he began working as legislative and policy director at the National Indian Education Association (NIEA).
“My doctorate is in social work, but I don’t want to be a therapist. I wanted to go more into policy and work on macro problems,” Chastain said. “We oversee Native education across the United States. We advocate, we assist in crafting policy, and we encourage members of Congress to focus on certain agendas.”
The job is very personal to him, as Chastain is a member of the Cherokee Nation who grew up on a reservation in Oklahoma.
“My father is Native, my mother's white,” Chastain said. “I’ve been through tribal schools. I've seen how it can be really helpful with a sense of community, but also how the lack of federal resources can really impact education.”
Tribal schools are at a budgetary disadvantage, Chastain said, because public education is typically funded by taxpayer dollars, but there is no local taxation on a reservation. Chastain and his small team at NIEA are the largest advocacy group in the U.S. for Native American, Native Hawaiian and Alaska Native students.
Throughout his Army career, Chastain spent several years living abroad, first while stationed in the DMZ on the border of North and South Korea. Later, he deployed to Iraq three different times, in 2003, 2006 and 2009, for 12 months each time. During his tour in Iraq, he operated across the country from Basra to Mosul and Kirkuk. Next, he was a military attaché at the U.S. Consulate in Saudi Arabia. He later was the senior enlisted advisor in Jordan supporting operations across the Middle East.
His favorite assignment was his last, working in the White House under the Biden administration with members of every military branch to support White House operations involving everything from Air Force One to Marine One to Camp David and the president’s mess, the dining facility beneath the Oval Office. He worked in the East Wing near First Lady Jill Biden’s office as the senior enlisted advisor on a Department of Defense Joint Indigenous Collaboration Team looking at issues pertaining to recruitment, retention and barriers to service for service members from Tribal communities.
“As a kid from the rez, I never expected to be in the White House,” he said.
A big reason he remained in the Army for nearly three decades, he said, was because each new assignment seemed too fascinating to pass up. And his military career gave him a sense of community like the one he had enjoyed growing up.
“Everybody joins for different reasons. I joined because I needed a sense of community that I’d lost,” he said. “Growing up in Oklahoma, everyone is your auntie or your uncle. You go to any house and you’re going to get fed. It was a very tight-knit community. And I had lost that all through high school and college. And when I joined the Army, I think I found it again. Community, that sense of responsibility between people, is really what kept me coming back.”
He continues to be actively engaged with his military connections, including his fellow Tillman Scholars, recipients of scholarships named for Pat Tillman, a professional football player for the Arizona Cardinals who joined the Army after the terror attacks of 9/11. After he was killed in Afghanistan, Tillman’s wife started a foundation in his honor that selects between 40 and 60 scholars every year. Chastain, a 2019 Tillman Scholar, was the guest speaker last year at a GW Veterans Day ceremony.
“I’ve stayed in touch, and I appreciate the support that GW gives to the military community,” Chastain said. “There are active-duty military members in a lot of the courses that I’m in. Being a retired guy with 28 years of experience allows me to provide a little bit of mentorship or insight to these young, up-and-coming officers. I really appreciate that and GW really facilitates it.”
