WASHINGTON – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to appoint the following individuals to key administration posts:

• 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
• Irasema Coronado, Member, Joint Public Advisory Committee of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation
• Geoffrey Garver, Member, Joint Public Advisory Committee of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation
• Felicia Marcus, Member, Joint Public Advisory Committee of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation
• Diane Takvorian, Member, Joint Public Advisory Committee of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation
• Jonathan Waterhouse, Member, Joint Public Advisory Committee of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation

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.”

President Obama announced his intent to appoint the following individuals to key 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.

Irasema Coronado, Appointee for Member, Joint Public Advisory Committee of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation
Irasema Coronado, Ph.D. currently serves as an Associate Provost of The University of Texas at El Paso.  Dr. Coronado is also an Associate Professor in the Political Science Department and a faculty member in the Environmental Science and Engineering Ph.D. program.  Dr. Coronado has served as Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts (2006-2008), chair of the Political Science Department (2005- 2006), and Assistant Professor of the Center for Inter-American and Border Studies (1999-2003) at The University of Texas at El Paso.  Dr. Coronado was also a Fulbright Scholar at the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez in Mexico (2004-2005), and a faculty member at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas (1995-1999).  Dr. Coronado has held other academic and visiting scholar positions at the University of Texas at San Antonio (1998-1999), the University of Arizona (1997 and 2001), El Colegio de la Frontera Norte in Sonora, Mexico (1992-1995), and Cochise College (1991).  Dr. Coronado is currently a Board member of Frontera Women’s Foundation, the Coalition Against Violence Toward Women and Children on the Border, and FEMAP (Mexican Federation of Private Associations).  Dr. Coronado holds a B.A. from the University of South Florida and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Arizona.

Geoffrey Garver, Appointee for Member, Joint Public Advisory Committee of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation
Geoffrey Garver is currently an Adjunct Law Professor at the University of Montreal in Montreal, Canada.  Mr. Garver also serves as an independent environmental consultant for the Organization of American States and the Secretariat for Environmental Matters for the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement region.  From 2000 to 2007, Mr. Garver served as Director of Submissions on Enforcement Matters at the Commission for Environmental Cooperation for North America.  From 1989 to 1993 and 1995 to 2000, Mr. Garver was a trial attorney and then became Acting Assistant Chief in the U.S. Department of Justice, Environment and Natural Resources Division.  From 1993 to 1995, Mr. Garver served as a Special Assistant and Senior Policy Counsel to the Assistant Administrator for Enforcement and Compliance Assurance at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  And from 1987 to 1989, Mr. Garver was a Law Clerk to then Chief Judge Conrad K. Cyr in the United States District Court for the District of Maine.  Mr. Garver holds a B.S. from Cornell University and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.  Mr. Garver is currently pursuing an L.L.M. and a Ph.D. at McGill University.

Felicia Marcus, Appointee for Member, Joint Public Advisory Committee of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation
Felicia Marcus is currently Western Director for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).  From 2001 to 2008, Ms. Marcus served as Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer of the Trust for Public Land, a national non-profit devoted to conserving land for people.  From 1993 to 2001, Ms. Marcus was appointed by President Clinton as Regional Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for Region IX, which encompasses California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii, former trust territories in the Pacific, and over 140 federally-recognized Indian Tribes.  From 1989 to 1991, Ms. Marcus was appointed to the Board of Public Works for the City of Los Angeles.  Earlier in her career, Ms. Marcus served as a Law Clerk to Judge Harry Pregerson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.  Ms. Marcus is a member of many non-profit Boards and Advisory Councils, including the Public Policy Institute of California, the Metropolitan Water District – Blue Ribbon Committee, Urban Habitat, Natural Heritage Institute, and the Center for Diversity and the Environment.  Ms. Marcus has an A.B. from Harvard College and a J.D. from New York University School of Law.

Diane Takvorian, Appointee for Member, Joint Public Advisory Committee of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation
Diane Takvorian is currently the Executive Director and a Founder of Environmental Health Coalition (EHC), where over the past 30 years she has built grassroots campaigns to address toxic pollution, discriminatory land use, and unsustainable energy policies in the San Diego/Tijuana region.  Ms. Takvorian is also a co-founder of the California Environmental Justice Alliance, a coalition working to address environmental justice issues throughout California.  Prior to founding the EHC, Ms. Takvorian managed programs at Community Congress of San Diego (1978-1981), Social Advocates for Youth (1976-1978), and the HELP Center of San Diego (1974-1976).  From 1984 to 2001, Ms. Takvorian served as a faculty member in the School of Social Work at San Diego State University.  Ms. Takvorian currently serves on the California Global Warming Environmental Justice Advisory Committee of the California Environmental Protection Agency.   In 1998, President Clinton appointed Ms. Takvorian to the Border Environmental Cooperation Commission.  In 2008, Ms. Takvorian received the James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award and the Environment Section of the American Public Health Association Calver Award.  Ms. Takvorian holds a B.S. and an M.A. in Social Work from San Diego State University.

Jonathan Waterhouse, Appointee for Member, Joint Public Advisory Committee of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation
Jonathan Waterhouse is the Director of the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council (YRITWC), a non-profit organization made up of 70 Tribes and First Nations, created to preserve and protect the Yukon Watershed and Native cultures.  During his tenure at YRITWC, Mr. Waterhouse worked to develop the BackHaul Program that removed millions of pounds of recyclables and hazardous waste from the Yukon watershed.  Prior to joining YRITWC, Mr. Waterhouse had oversight over management, operations, and financial matters for Green Connection (2003-2004), Alaska Airlines (2000-2003), and Pavlof Services, Inc. (1995-2000).  From 1997-2000, Mr. Waterhouse served as City Councilman for the City of Cold Bay, Alaska.  In 1995, Mr. Waterhouse retired from a twenty year career in the United States Navy as a decorated Chief Petty Officer.  Mr. Waterhouse is an Advisory Board Member and Community Development Director for the Alaska-Sudan Medical Project, which focuses on building medical clinics and installing clean water systems in Southern Sudan.