Hard work, perseverance & stewardship with Karletta Jones (Dine’), CPA, CIA

Insight in Indian Country Podcast

Trusted Expertise to Serve Tribal Nations

Join Wes Benally, REDW Principal and National Tribal Practice Leader, for a one-to-one with Karletta Jones (Dine’), CPA, CIA—a true unicorn combination. Karletta is jumping on the podcast to talk about stewardship, the value of growing up immersed in Navajo culture, going after goals, and encountering adversity while pursuing higher education and CPA licensure. She is the Assistant Director, Financial Oversight with the W.A. Franke College of Business at Northern Arizona University.

Have a question or want to request a topic for our podcast? Connect with Wes.

REDW LLC is proud to bring you the Insight in Indian Country Podcast, covering important advisory, accounting, and finance topics that impact Tribal Nations and business affairs. Thanks for listening!

Meet Your Host

Wesley Ryan Benally, CPA

REDW Principal and National Tribal Practice Leader

As the leader of REDW’s National Tribal Practice, Wes is committed to improving financial literacy throughout Indian Country and hosts the Insight in Indian Country Podcast. He oversees audits of a wide range for Native American communities, state and local government agencies, and non-profits, nationwide, is a member of the Arizona State Board of Accountancy’s Peer Review Oversight Advisory Committee and serves as an instructor with Arizona State University’s American Indian Policy Institute. In addition, as a Board member for a tribal gaming entity that operates in two states, Wes keeps up with regulatory issues important to tribal gaming operations. Wes is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation.

Compensation Studies—Your Key to Hiring & Retaining Top Talent.

It’s important to attract—and retain—the best employees to ensure the long-term success and sustainability of your tribal organization. And given an exceptionally competitive labor market and the usual budget constraints, this means basing your employee compensation and benefits programs on relevant and reliable data.

The 2023 results are in! Learn more about REDW’s 2023 Tribal Compensation Survey Reports for Tribal Governments and Tribal Gaming.

More from Insight in Indian Country

• Shared Workplace Challenges: The Patterns HR Experts See Across Every Kind of Organization
  Two REDW HR leaders explain the workplace patterns they see across every kind of organization — and why believing your challenge is unique is often what keeps it unsolved.
• AI in Finance: What Every Finance Leader Needs to Know Before They Start
  AI is reshaping the finance function — and the leaders who come out ahead won’t just adopt new tools, they’ll learn to translate them into strategy. REDW CFO Maxwell Kagan shares what every finance leader should know before diving in.
• REDW Hosts the 2026 Tribal Leadership & Management (TL&M) Conference
  REDW is proud to host the 2026 TL&M Conference, October 14–15 at South Point Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas — bringing together Tribal Elected Officials, Administrators, Enterprise Management, and Indian Country leaders for two days of connection and insight. Register early and save with code REDWPOD26.
• Soaring Bird Solutions & the Road to the TL&M Conference with Karla Bylund
  Karla Bylund, founder of Soaring Bird Solutions, joins Wes Benally to share her journey from a one-woman Tribal HR practice to REDW’s broader advisory platform — and what’s ahead at this year’s Tribal Leadership & Management Conference in Las Vegas.
• “No is a complete sentence.” | Breaking the Need to Explain Yourself
  A REDW HR Consulting duo brings their standing-room-only WEWIN National Conference session to the podcast — practical tools for confidence, boundaries, and voice in Indigenous women’s leadership.