Formed in scholarship.
Tested in practice.
Guided by the long view.
Formation
Mikal Brotnov Eckström holds a PhD from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, with specialization in Digital Humanities and Great Plains history. His dissertation was completed under advisors Margaret Jacobs — one of the most significant historians of settler colonialism and Indigenous history in the American West — and Katrina Jagodinsky, a leading scholar of Indigenous law and legal history in the Great Plains. That formation is not incidental to his philanthropic advising; it is the foundation of it.
His graduate study also included formative work at Clark University, where he was mentored by Holocaust historian Debórah Dwork and worked with advisors Taner Akçam, a leading scholar of the Armenian Genocide, and Wim Klooster, whose work spans Atlantic history and the early modern period. Together these influences produced a scholarly sensibility that is comparative, ethically serious, and deeply attentive to how violence and memory shape communities over time.
He co-founded Studio Eckström alongside Creative Director Mark Eckström, and serves as its Director of Operations, overseeing the full operational and strategic arc of the practice. His research was recognized with a National Endowment for the Humanities grant and a Ford Foundation Fellowship.
Domains
- History and historical memory
- Digital Humanities and public history
- Indigenous history, land, and community
- Great Plains history and culture
- Philanthropic strategy and giving
- Arts, architecture, and material culture
- Geopolitical and policy developments
- Legal scholarship and jurisprudence
- Wellness, nutrition, and somatic practice
- Entertaining and domestic ritual
- Self-development and long-form reading
- Web development and digital publishing
- Creator economy and platform strategy
- Cultural event production
Collaborators
Mikal's intellectual and creative network reflects the breadth of his formation. His doctoral advisors at UNL — Margaret Jacobs and Katrina Jagodinsky — continue to shape how he thinks about Indigenous communities, land, and justice. At Clark, mentor Debórah Dwork modeled the kind of historically grounded, morally serious scholarship that Mikal carries into everything he does. Advisors Taner Akçam and Wim Klooster broadened his scholarly frame to encompass genocide, diaspora, and Atlantic world history.
His cultural collaborators include Elise Loehnen, author and podcast host, whose work on the interior life and cultural change intersects with Mikal's interests in truth, storytelling, and the examined life; and Rebecca Clarren, a journalist and author whose reporting on Indigenous communities and the American West brings both rigor and humanity to the stories Mikal cares most about.
Together with Loehnen and Clarren, he has produced the Saints & Liars event series — literary and cultural gatherings at Strauss Hall, University of Nebraska Omaha.
How Mikal Works
Surgical. Deliberate. Committed to the long form over the shortcut. Mikal prefers targeted refinement over wholesale replacement, accumulation of intent over speed, and depth of relationship over volume of engagement. He writes with a literary sensibility, thinks with a historian's patience, and operates with an executive's clarity about what actually moves things forward.
His philanthropic advising practice follows the same logic: select, not broad. He takes on engagements where his specific background — doctoral training in Great Plains and Indigenous history, operational experience, and genuine scholarly relationships — creates a real contribution, not a generic one.
He is based in Omaha, Nebraska and serves clients and collaborators across the United States. Reach him at me@mikaleckstrom.com.
On Indigenous giving —
a select practice.
Mikal has begun taking on select advising engagements focused specifically on Indigenous giving. This work is not peripheral to his training — it grows directly from his doctoral specialization in Digital Humanities and Great Plains history at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, and from his scholarly relationships with Margaret Jacobs and Katrina Jagodinsky, two of the leading historians of Indigenous communities in the American West and Great Plains.
The nations whose land this region encompasses — the Omaha, the Ponca, the Lakota, and others — have histories that are present, ongoing, and demanding of accurate engagement. Mikal brings a historian's discipline to the question of what it means to give well in this context: not just who to fund, but how to fund in ways that respect sovereignty, strengthen Indigenous-led institutions, and avoid the paternalism that has historically characterized so much philanthropic activity directed at Native communities.
These engagements are selective and relationship-driven. He works with donors, families, and foundations who want to move beyond performative philanthropy toward giving that is historically informed, community-responsive, and built to last.
Inquiries are welcome at me@mikaleckstrom.com.
"The same long view that makes for serious history makes for serious interiors — and for serious giving. Decisions made now will outlast the moment. That is the discipline."— Mikal Brotnov Eckström, Omaha, Nebraska
Begin a
conversation.
For studio inquiries, press, speaking engagements, digital strategy, or philanthropic advising on Indigenous giving, write directly to me@mikaleckstrom.com. Studio Eckström is also reachable at studioeckstrom.com.