Secretary Gale Norton to Conduct Swearing-In Ceremony for Board Members of New Foundation to Support American Indian Schools

WASHINGTON - Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton will participate in a swearing-in ceremony this week at the inaugural board meeting of an independent foundation chartered by Congress to accept financial and other contributions for Indian students attending Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) schools.

The board of directors of the Foundation for the Advancement of American Indian Education (FAAIE) will be welcomed on Thursday, March 6 by Secretary Norton, acting Assistant Director - Indian Affairs Aurene M. Martin, and FAAIE Founding Director Lorraine P. Edmo.

CREDENTIALS: Admittance to the Main Interior Building will be through the C Street entrance, limited to media representatives and crews holding sanctioned media credentials. The Rachel Carson Room is on the building's basement level, adjoining the building's cafeteria. A multi-box will be available and you are advised to be in place by 1 :50 p.m. with the brief program beginning at 2. Newly seated board members will be available for individual interviews following the prepared program.

Secretary Norton and Assistant Secretary Martin will serve as ex-officio members of the board alongside these founding board members:

• Dave Anderson of Edina, Minnesota, a member of the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Ojibwa and Founder and President of Famous Dave's Barbecue Restaurants franchise. Anderson was awarded the Bush Leadership Fellowship in 1985 and received a Masters Degree from Harvard University in 1986.
• Dr. David Beaulieu of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, an enrolled member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe - White Earth Reservation and the first Electa Quinney professor of American Indian education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's School of Education. He served as Director of the Department of Education's Office of Indian Education from 1997 to 2001.
• Sharon K. Darling of Louisville, Kentucky, Founder and President of the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) and an internationally recognized leader in the field of family literacy. She is an active member of several boards and serves on the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy.
• John Guevremont, a member of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe of Connecticut and Director of the Tribe's National Government Affairs Office located in Washington, D.C. He has held several positions within Mashantucket Pequot tribal government and is a retired major of the U.S. Marine Corps (1975 to 1995).
• Daniel Lewis of Phoenix, Arizona, a member of the Navajo Nation and Senior Vice President and Director of the Office of Native American Financial Services for Bank of America. Lewis is currently chairman of the National Native American Advisory Committee of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.
• Nick Lowery of Tempe, Arizona, President of the Nick Lowery Foundation and Co-Founder of "Nation Building for Native Youth." A former professional football player with the Kansas City Chiefs and the New York Jets, Lowery has worked for President Bush in the first Office of National Service.
• Joanne Stately of St. Paul, Minnesota, a member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe and Senior Program Officer of the St. Paul Foundation. She was recently elected President of Native Americans in Philanthropy, a national non-profit association of American Indian and Alaska Native fundraisers.
• Dr. Linda Sue Warner of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a member of the Comanche Tribe of Oklahoma is Research Associate Professor, Truman Center for Public Policy, University of Missouri - Columbia and recently served as CEO for the Indian Community School of Milwaukee, Inc. Dr. Warner has extensive teaching experience in public and BIA schools.
• Della Warrior of Santa Fe, New Mexico, a member of the Otoe-Missouria Tribe of Oklahoma and President of the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) where she also served as Interim President and, prior to becoming president, as Development Director. She has a Masters Degree in Education from Harvard University.

FAAIE founding director Lorraine Edmo, a member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of Fort Hall, Idaho, previously served in the U.S. Department of Education's Office of lndian Education (OIE). From 1993 to 1999, she served as executive director of the National Indian Education Association (NIEA), the country's oldest and largest non-profit Indian education organization. From 1983 to 1992, she served as Executive Director of the American Indian Graduate Center (AIGC) in Albuquerque, N.M., a non-profit scholarship organization for American Indian and Alaska Native graduate students. Edmo has a Bachelors Degree from the University of Montana and a Masters Degree in Public Administration from the University of New Mexico.

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