The White House announced six key presidential appointments to the National Advisory Council on Indian Education. The White House released the names May 13. President Obama said, “The expertise and commitment these men and women bring to their roles will make them tremendous assets to my administration, and I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead.”
• Thomas R. Acevedo, Member, National Advisory Council on Indian Education
• Derek J. Bailey, Member, National Advisory Council on Indian Education
• Robin A. Butterfield, Member, National Advisory Council on Indian Education
• Robert B. Cook, Member, National Advisory Council on Indian Education
• Deborah Jackson-Dennison, Member, National Advisory Council on Indian Education
• Alyce Spotted Bear, Member, National Advisory Council on Indian Education
Here are the bios for the key Indian education administration posts:
Thomas R. Acevedo, Appointee for Member, National Advisory Council on Indian Education
Thomas Acevedo is the CEO for S&K Technologies, Inc. a company wholly owned by the Salish & Kootenai Tribes, of which he is a member. Mr. Acevedo previously served as the Chief of Staff for the Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut and the Chief of Staff for the National Indian Gaming Commission. He has served on the boards of several national Indian organizations throughout his career. Mr. Acevedo is a graduate of the University of Montana and of the University of New Mexico School of Law.
Derek J. Bailey, Appointee for Member, National Advisory Council on Indian Education
Derek J. Bailey was sworn in as Tribal Chairman of the Grand Traverse Band on December 11, 2008. Chairman Bailey is the fifth Chairman since the Grand Traverse Band was federally reaffirmed in May 1980, and the youngest in the Tribe’s history. He is currently the Chairman of the Inter-Tribal Council of Michigan, and most recently selected as the Chairman of CORA (Chippewa/Ottawa Resource Authority). He holds a Master’s degree in Social Work, graduating from Grand Valley State University in 1998.
Robin A. Butterfield, Appointee for Member, National Advisory Council on Indian Education
Robin Butterfield is a Senior Liaison within the Minority Community Outreach Department of the National Education Association. Before working at NEA, Ms Butterfield was the Professional Development Specialist at the Center for School Improvement within the Bureau of Indian Affairs, located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Ms. Butterfield worked at the classroom level in tribal and public schools in Wisconsin; coordinated the Salem-Keizer Indian Education Program at the district level in Oregon; served in the position of Indian Education/Civil Rights Specialist for the Oregon Department of Education for nine years; and worked at two different regional educational technical assistance centers, Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory and the Gonzaga University Indian Education Technical Assistance Center III. She is an enrolled member of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska with ancestry from the White Earth Ojibwa Tribe of Minnesota. Ms. Butterfield received her B.A in English/Secondary Education from the University of Puget Sound, her M.S. in Elementary Education from the University of Wisconsin/Madison, and her Administrative Certification from Portland State University.
Robert B. Cook, Appointee for Member, National Advisory Council on Indian Education
Robert B. Cook is an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe (Oglala Lakota) and serves as the Principal of Pine Ridge High School on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Mr. Cook has over twenty years of teaching and administrative experience in American Indian education, serving in both tribal and public schools. He is a member of the Technical Review Panel of the National Indian Education Study, a member of the South Dakota Indian Education Advisory Council and recently completed his term as President of the National Indian Education Association. Mr. Cook graduated from Black Hills State University with a degree in Secondary Education and received his master’s degree in Education Administration from Oglala Lakota College.
Deborah Jackson-Dennison, Appointee for Member, National Advisory Council on Indian Education
Dr. Deborah Jackson-Dennison is the Superintendent of Window Rock Unified School District No. 8 located in the Navajo Indian Nation and is an enrolled member of the Navajo Tribe. She has also served as Superintendent of Schools for Ganado Unified School District No. 20 also located on the Navajo Indian Nation. Dr. Jackson-Dennison has provided over 24 years of service as an educator, 11 as a classroom teacher at both at the high school and college levels, and 13 as a school administrator, including 8 as a school district superintendent. She earned an Associates degree from Dine College in 1981, a B.A. in Education from the University of New Mexico in 1986, and both her Masters and Ed.D. degrees in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from Arizona State University in 1997 and 2001.
Alyce Spotted Bear, Appointee for Member, National Advisory Council on Indian Education
Alyce Spotted Bear is an enrolled member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Tribes of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota. Spotted Bear, a former Tribal Chairman, has worked at all levels of Indian education, including as a teacher, principal, school superintendent, federal programs administrator, and college instructor/administrator. Ms. Spotted Bear is currently the Vice President for Native American Studies at the Fort Berthold Community College in North Dakota. She earned her bachelor and master degrees in education from Dickinson State College, and Pennsylvania State College, respectively, and completed coursework for a Ph.D. in Education at Cornell University.
Special congratulations to Alyce Spotted Bear, my aunt, my inspiration.
Jodi Rave
