William G. Demmert will be Director of Indian Education Programs for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today.
Demmert, who is part Tlingit and part Oglala Sioux, is well known in the Indian community as a top administrator of Indian education programs in the Department of Health, education, and Welfare. He is the first Deputy Commissioner of Indian education in the United States Office of education (USOE), a position created in 1972 by the Indian education Act (P.L. 92-318).
Demmert will assume this new position in the immediate future. In addition, during a transition period until the middle of June, he will complete some tasks already undertaken at USOE.
"We are delighted to get Bill for this critical job in the Bureau," Commissioner Thompson said. "The Indian community is moving into a new era of progress and achievement in which improved education programs are essential for success. We expect Bill to provide the leadership that is needed."
Demmert, 42, received his doctorate in education Administration at Harvard in a special program for American Indians co-funded by the BIA and USOE. While completing his studies at Harvard, Demmert worked as Director of the Indian program at the school and served as a consultant to the U.S. Senate Education Subcommittee.
A native of Klawock, Alaska, Demmert earned his M.W. at the University of Alaska and the B.A. at Seattle Pacific College.
For ten years, from 1960 to 1970, Demmert worked as a teacher, coach and school administrator in Washington and Alaska.
