BIA Leadership

Bryan Mercier is the director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Prior to his appointment on September 30, 2024, he served as the regional director of BIA’s Northwest Region. He has spent 20 years working in public service, starting as a Morris K. Udall Foundation Intern and Mark O. Hatfield Fellow with Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon. Mercier’s federal serv ...

Bartholomew “Bart” Steven's heritage reflects the diverse cultures and histories of several Indian tribes. He is an enrolled member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe with lineage in the Piipaash (Maricopa Tribe) of the Gila River Indian Community and maternal ancestry from the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of Idaho and the Ute Tribe in Utah. His ancestry is further ...

Richard “Glen” Melville, an enrolled member of Makah Tribe of Washington, is the deputy bureau director, Office of Justice Services. Melville joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1997 and served a 29-year career with the bureau and Tribal law enforcement programs before retiring in 2021 as the deputy associate director for the Office of Justice Services. ...

Johnna Blackhair is the Deputy Bureau Director for Trust Services at the Bureau of Indian Affairs. She oversees 16 divisions responsible for assisting 574 tribal governments and allottees (individual Indians owning federal Indian trust assets) in managing, protecting, and developing their trust lands and natural resources, totaling 56 million surface acres a ...

Genevieve Giaccardo was appointed the Deputy Bureau Director – Office of Indian Services in the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) on September 24, 2023. She previously served as the BIA Chief of Staff from August 2020, where she provided leadership support and coordination for a broad range of national and agency activities. She joined the BIA in April 2018 as ...

Louis Poitra is the Assistant Director of the Office of Justice Services, bringing over two decades of dedicated service and expertise to his current role. He began his service with the Office of Justice Services in 2002 as a Uniformed Police Officer at the Western Nevada Agency. Throughout his career, Poitra has held various key positions, including servin ...

Trina Locke is the Director of Environmental and Natural Resources for the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Trust Services. Locke oversees the Divisions of Environmental Services and Cultural Management, Forest Management, Wildland Fire Management, and Natural Resources in this role. Her long career includes serving Trust Services and the Office of the ...

Kimberly Bouchard serves as the Regional Director of the Eastern Regional Office.  As the Regional Director, Ms. Bouchard carries out the Department's trust responsibilities to the 34 federally recognized Indian Tribes who live in states ranging from Maine to Florida to Louisiana and up to Illinois. Bouchard began her federal career in 1990 with the BIA ...

Jessie Durham is the Regional Director for Western Region. She brings nearly three decades of experience in Indian Affairs, including 23 years with the Department of the Interior. Durham joined the Bureau in 2015 and has held various key positions within the organization, including acting regional director for the Southern Plains Region and deputy regio ...

Amy Dutschke is the Regional Director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs Pacific Region of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. She previously served as deputy regional director for Trust Services. Dutschke began her federal career with the BIA in 1975. Since then, she has held various positions, including tribal operations clerk, tribal operations specialist, sel ...

Jolene John, known as Arnaqulluk in Yugtun, serves as the regional director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the Alaska Regional Office. Previously, she contributed to Tribal Operations and Native Services from 2016-21. She returned to the BIA after a successful tenure as deputy administrator for the Alaska Office of Native American Programs (ONAP) within ...

Patricia L. Mattingly is the Regional Director for the Southwest Regional Office and has also served as the region's Deputy Regional Director, Indian Services and Tribal Government Officer. Prior to supporting the regional office, she served as the Associate Director for the bureau's Division of Probate and Estate Services and as the Regional Legal Administ ...

Bryan Mercier is the director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Prior to his appointment on September 30, 2024, he served as the regional director of BIA’s Northwest Region. He has spent 20 years working in public service, starting as a Morris K. Udall Foundation Intern and Mark O. Hatfield Fellow with Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon. Mercier’s federal serv ...

Robert “Gabe” Morgan is the Regional Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Southern Plains Regional Office. Before his current role, Morgan served eight years as the region’s BIA Office of Trust Services deputy regional director. From 2012-16, he served as Southern Plains Regional natural resource officer. Since 2008, Morgan has worked for the Burea ...

Eddie Streater is the Regional Director for Eastern Oklahoma Region. He began his federal service with the Bureau in 1992 as a realty specialist. Over the years, Streater has held numerous trust and management positions, including serving as the superintendent at the Wewoka Agency, acting deputy regional director at the Southern Plains Region, and deputy re ...

Tammie Poitra - serves as the regional director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Midwest Regional Office. She oversees operations and management across Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Michigan from the Midwest Region headquarters in Bloomington, Minnesota. In her role, Poitra manages more than 7.5 million acres of land held in trust and ceded territorie ...

Deborah Shirley serves as the acting regional director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Navajo Region. Previously, she held the position of deputy regional director - Trust Services for the BIA Western Region in Gallup, New Mexico. Her experience encompasses various roles within the Bureau of Trust Funds Administration (formerly OST), including fiducia ...

Leslie Shakespeare is the Acting Rocky Mountain Regional Director of Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). He has served as as the Acting Rocky Mountain Regional Deputy Director for Indian Services in 2022 and prior to that, as the BIA Superintendent at the Wind River Agency located in Fort Washakie, Wyoming since November 12, 2019. Shakespeare has been committed ...

Olivia M. Steve was born in New York City and being of biracial descent, was raised primarily in Tselani Springs on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona by her mother and grandmother. She is a descendant of the Tódích’íi’nii (Bitter Water), Tótsohnii (Big/Great Water), and Kinyaa’áanii (Towering House People) clans within the Diné (Navajo) tribe. Ms. Steve, a m ...