WASHINGTON – Bureau of Indian Affairs Director Jerold L. “Jerry” Gidner today announced that he has named Diane K. Rosen as Regional Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Midwest Regional Office in Ft. Snelling, Minn. Rosen, who has ancestry from two federally recognized tribes in Wisconsin, the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians where she is enrolled and the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, had been serving as the acting regional director since October 25, 2009. The Midwest Regional Office oversees four agencies serving 35 federally recognized tribes located within the states of Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Her appointment became effective on February 28, 2010.
“Diane Rosen brings to the post of Midwest Regional Director extensive experience with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and its mission to serve the federally recognized tribes,” Gidner said. “I am pleased to welcome her to my regional management team.”
“I want to express my deep appreciation to BIA Director Gidner and to Assistant Secretary Echo Hawk for giving me this tremendous opportunity to serve Indian Country,” Rosen said. “I am looking forward to working with the tribes of the Midwest Region, and I am committed to ensuring they receive the highest level of service from our regional office and agencies.”
Rosen’s 26-year federal career began in August 1979 at the BIA’s Great Lakes Agency in Ashland, Wisc., as a clerk in the Real Estate Services and Tribal Operations divisions working in a wide variety of subject areas including per capita payments, tribal enrollment, secretarial elections, attorney contracts, leasing and rights-of-way. At the Agency she progressed until attaining the position of Realty Specialist in May 1991.
In May 1994, she was promoted to Tribal Operations Officer, where she was in charge of the Branch of Tribal Operations assisting tribes with governance matters such as tribal constitutions, ordinances, laws, charters, enrollment, revenue allocation plans and attorney contracts, as well as trust funds, land consolidation, records management and labor data collection.
From June 2003 to March 2004, Rosen also served as the Acting Superintendent of the Great Lakes Agency, where she managed the full range of BIA programs, including forestry, probate, real estate services, natural resources and tribal operations, on behalf of ten federally recognized tribes with over 200,000 acres in federal trust and over 48,000 enrolled members.
She was named the Superintendent of the Great Lakes Agency in March 2004, a position she held until being named the acting Midwest Regional Director.
Rosen graduated from Washburn High School in Washburn, Wisc., in 1976 and attended the Secretarial Science/Account Clerk Program at Chippewa Valley Technical College in Eau Claire in 1979. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Northland College in Ashland in 2006, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in Management and Leadership.
Among the honors she has received are several federal employment and performance awards, as well as the Northland College Native American Studies Award for Academic Excellence in 2004 and the Northland College Merit Award for Management and Leadership in 2006.
