Team

Team

Team

Formed by personal and professional investments in Indian Country, Footpath Development Group LLC's team is led by a strong partnership of industry-recognized leaders invested in building the capacity of Tribal governments, their citizens, and the organizations that work to improve the quality of life in Indian Country.

Founding Team

Randall M. Hinton, Founder & Partner
Christopher M. Shrum, Ph.D., MPA, Founder & Partner

Randall M. Hinton | Founder & Partner

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Randall M. Hinton is an enrolled member of the federally recognized Passamaquoddy Tribe from the Pleasant Point Reservation, located in Perry, Maine.

He graduated from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Oswego in 1977 with a B.A. degree.

As an undergraduate student at SUNY Oswego, Randall was active in the Native American Brotherhood Program. He served as a student advisor to the Oswego State President's Academic Advisory Committee for incoming Native American student recruitment and undergraduate mentoring programs.

Randall continued his affiliation with SUNY Oswego after graduation. He served as a long-term academic advisor for the Native American Education Studies program and in that role, provided oversight regarding Native American education efforts and curriculum throughout the State University system's campuses.

Mr. Hinton attended Syracuse University in the early 1980s, working toward a graduate degree before starting on his career path with New York State government in 1982.

During his 36 year career in the NYS government, Randall served in various executive level, administrative, and management positions. He was recognized for significant achievements within the agencies and was assigned as a statewide program Division Director in the Investigations, Inspector General, Internal Controls and Internal Audit fields.

He worked directly with the New York State's Executive Office under the leadership of Governor Mario M. Cuomo to conduct outreach and Native American liaison activities for the Governor's Office. This effort resulted in the establishment of the nation's first of its kind "Native American Outreach Program."

The essence of this program focused on building communication links between the NYS government and the Haudenosaunee's Six Nations to improve 'Nation to Nation' relations, remove employment barriers, provide recruitment mechanisms and enhance career and job opportunities for Native Americans within NYS government. Further, the program responded to and addressed numerous other intergovernmental concerns put forth by the Six Nations.

These efforts led to the historic amendment to the New York State Constitution in 1994, prescribing an alternative to the State's official pledge and "Oath of Office." This amendment enabled Native Americans within NYS to maintain loyalty to their Nations' sovereign beliefs, binding ties, interests, and cultural traditions while also seeking job opportunities within NYS and local municipal governments.

Throughout his New York State career, Randall worked tirelessly to advocate for Native Americans, networking and providing assistance to them as they navigated within the State and local power systems when seeking remedies for a wide range of ongoing peripheral concerns within the educational, urban, social, economic-related universe and other governmental fields.

When confronted with the numerous socio-economic and cultural barriers which were apparent within nearby communities to tribes in Maine, Mr. Hinton initiated dialogue and ongoing communications with tribal leaders at the Passamaquoddy Pleasant Point Reservation and elsewhere in Indian Country within the State of Maine.

He consulted directly with the State of Maine Governor's Office, various members of the Maine State Legislature, Representatives of the U.S. Congressional and Senate seat offices along with other governmental officials concerning the recognition of indigenous rights and removing the barriers faced by many Native American communities which hamper the opportunity for building tribal economic development programs.

Mr. Hinton continued these efforts, working closely with past leadership and tribal administrators within the Passamaquoddy Tribe as the Director of Economic Development. In this role, he worked to introduce and maintain momentum in the area of economic development within the Pleasant Point Reservation's administrative program areas to achieve ongoing tribal cohesion and self-sustainability.

Randall is an avid fly fisherman and licensed fishing guide. He owns and manages the River Street Lodge on the Salmon River in the Tug Hill region of the Western Adirondacks in NYS.

Randall possesses a robust, dedicated and proven interest in delivering the implements of economic change to Native American communities, while armed with the wealth of resources, knowledge, skills and practical abilities acquired throughout his professional career.

His in-depth life experience provides him the ability to deliver a sharp perspective when facing current Native American issues, economic development challenges, and cultural barriers.

Christopher M. Shrum, Ph.D., MPA | Founder & Partner

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Christopher M. Shrum, Ph.D., MPA is professor and coordinator of Pratt Institute's graduate program in Creative Enterprise Leadership for Arts and Cultural Management, as well as a consultant working in community economic development, workforce development, the arts, tourism, and organization change. For more than 20 years, Dr. Shrum has assisted over 200 nonprofit organizations, Tribal governments, community groups, municipalities, and private businesses to realize a secure economic, social and cultural future by fostering civic engagement, leading program development, and advancing community-based initiatives. During that time, he has leveraged more than $250 million in philanthropic investment and public grants to transform the community.

As a community economic development professional trained in creative enterprise leadership, Dr. Shrum has dedicated much of his career to cultivating vibrant economies by bridging culture, community, and commerce. His expertise in organization development, philanthropy, board development, program evaluation, and financial management allows for a comprehensive systems approach to capacity building. Dr. Shrum has worked to build organizational and community capacity through direct technical assistance, education, and training, workforce development; fund development; civic engagement, and strategic planning.

As director of community services and interim president of Eastern Maine Development Corporation, Dr. Shrum provided strategic oversight of a six-county regional community economic development organization. During that time, he was intimately engaged with a wide range of private foundations and government funding programs to support housing, public facilities, healthcare, arts and culture, economic development, youth development, and a host of other community-based initiatives.

Subsequently, as a consultant to tribal governments and tribal enterprises, he has established expertise in program development and evaluation to advance long-term goals and strengthen sovereignty.

Dr. Shrum has established expertise in niche manufacturing focused on artisan products. He served as the visionary for the development of The Maine Highlands Guild, a support organization for creative entrepreneurs, and led the development of a business incubator in precision manufacturing. Dr. Shrum has assisted a wide range of manufacturers, including Passamaquoddy Maple, a Tribal specialty foods producer, Swans Island Company, an artisan textile manufacturer, Beth Bowley Design, and Nuthatch Apparel, a women's wear line; and Avena Botanicals, an herbal apothecary. He is currently assisting Made in NYC, a consortium of 1,300 manufacturers in New York City, by providing strategic planning and organization development technical assistance to its members.

Dr. Shrum led government affairs and planning for PenBay Health, an extensive health system in Maine; served as director of marketing and development for the Farnsworth Museum of Art and Wyeth Center in Rockland, Maine; Southern Methodist University's Meadows School for the Arts in Dallas; and the. He has had the pleasure of consulting with such organizations as the Ford Foundation, Wallace Funds, National Endowment for the Arts, and United South and Eastern Tribes. Dr. Shrum has led a series of large-scale community visioning processes associated with creative placemaking, downtown revitalization, and adaptive reuse related to the development of cultural facilities. He was awarded the Governor's Award for Excellence in Tourism for his role in establishing the American Folk Festival for Bangor, Maine. He has been recognized nationally for his work in cultural, economic development, and creative industries, primarily related to artisan guilds and niche manufacturing. Currently, Dr. Shrum assists Tribal communities across the United States to establish vibrant economies through investment in culture. His work in Indian Country is dedicated to advancing Tribal sovereignty through a wide range of capacity building initiatives, community planning, cultural development, and asset-based development strategies. He assists Tribes in community economic development, cultural revitalization, organization development, and philanthropy.

Dr. Shrum holds a Ph.D. in human and organizational development from Fielding Graduate University. His research focused on civic entrepreneurship, leveraging cultural capital, and engaging the experience economy for community transformation. He also earned a master's degree in public administration from New York University, graduate certificates in Dialogue, Deliberation and Public Engagement, and Evaluation and Organization Development from Fielding Graduate University; and a bachelor's degree in arts administration from Northern Arizona University.

Organizational funding programs and private funders Dr. Shrum has served as a consultant for and for whom he's successfully secured funding on their behalf include:

Public Grant Programs
  • Administration for Native Americans — Social and Economic Development Strategy, Multiple awards https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ana
  • Administration for Native Americans — Sustainable Employment and Economic Development Strategy, Passamaquoddy Maple passamaquoddymaple.com/
  • Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality — Transforming Healthcare Quality through Information Technology — PenBay Healthcare mainehealth.org/pen-bay-medical-center
  • Economic Development Administration (EDA) — Multiple Programs eda.gov/
  • Health Resources Services Administration — Office of Rural Health Policy, PenBay Healthcare mainehealth.org/pen-bay-medical-center
  • Housing and Urban Development — Indian Community Development Block Grant, Multiple awards hud.gov/
  • Housing and Urban Development — Rural Housing Economic Development, Piscataquis County Economic Development pcedc.org/
  • Maine Arts Commission, Multiple awards mainearts.maine.gov/
  • Maine Department of Economic and Community Development — Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), Multiple awards maine.gov/decd/home
  • National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) — Our Town, Multiple awards arts.gov/
  • Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development, Catawba Indian Nation bia.gov/as-ia/ieed and catawbaindian.net/
  • Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Jena Band of Choctaw Indians jenachoctaw.org/
  • USDA — Rural Development, Rural Business Development Grant (RBDG), Multiple awards usda.gov/
  • USDA — Rural Utilities Service, Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT), Multiple awards usda.gov/
  • US Department of Energy, State of Maine maine.gov/energy/
Private Foundations and Corporate Sponsors


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