Fireside Chats: Mental Health is Your Competitive Edge: Skills for Sport, School, and Life

Benjamin Rieth

Founder & Principal Consultant

Inside Edge Counseling and Consulting

Dr. Benjamin “Benny” Rieth (he/him) is an Indigenous higher education leader, author, and national speaker whose work centers on belonging, relationality, and culturally grounded leadership. A proud Anishinaabe professional and enrolled member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, he is the founder of BelongingU, a consulting practice dedicated to helping campuses and organizations design environments where people feel seen, valued, and connected. Dr. Benny brings both lived experience and scholarly insight to his work, often sharing his journey as a queer Indigenous student at St. Norbert College, where he navigated identity, faith-based environments, and predominantly non-Indigenous spaces while holding firmly to culture and community. His storytelling blends humor, honesty, and cultural grounding, offering audiences both deep reflection and practical tools, including his widely shared framework, The Five Rs of Belonging, rooted in Indigenous ways of being. He has held senior leadership roles in higher education spanning student affairs, enrollment, diversity, equity, inclusion, and campus belonging initiatives, and is an award-winning practitioner and researcher whose scholarship emphasizes Indigenous paradigms, culturally responsive spaces, and student sense of belonging. Through keynotes, workshops, and community-centered gatherings, Dr. Benny creates spaces where stories become bridges, culture becomes strength, and belonging becomes a shared responsibility.