·         Cynthia Chavez Lamar, Nominee for Member, Board of Trustees of the Institute of American Indian and Alaska Native Culture and Arts Development

Dr. Cynthia Chavez Lamar, whose heritage includes San Felipe Pueblo, Hopi, Tewa, and Navajo, is the director of the Indian Arts Research Center at the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe, NM, where she works to foster collaborative relationships and projects among Native peoples, organizations, and institutions. She is the former Museum Director of the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center (IPCC) in Albuquerque, NM, and the former Associate Curator of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in Washington DC.  While at NMAI, she led the development of the inaugural exhibition, Our Lives: Contemporary Life and Identities. In 2009, she received a governor’s appointment to the New Mexico Arts Commission.  She holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of New Mexico, a B.A. from Colorado College, and a M.A. in American Indian Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles. In 2008, Dr. Chavez Lamar received an honorary doctorate from her alma mater, Colorado College. 

Barbara Jeanne Ells, Nominee for Member, Board of Trustees of the Institute of American Indian and Alaska Native Culture and Arts Development

Barbara Ells is a dedicated patron of the arts, with specific interest in the arts and crafts of the Southwest and of Native American cultures.  She established and taught at multiple Head Start pre-schools, and helped found and staff a safe house for abused women and children in Terre Haute, Indiana, including a day-care center.  She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Early Childhood Education from Wheelock College in Boston, Massachusetts.

Deborah Downing Goodman, Nominee for Member, Board of Trustees of the Institute of American Indian and Alaska Native Culture and Arts Development

Deborah Goodman is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor in Human Relations at the University of Oklahoma and an enrolled member of the Caddo tribe.  In addition, Ms. Goodman has served as a health education consultant since 1988, providing wellness and family planning education for parents, teachers, health professionals and tribal groups.  Her focus is on establishing community developed and culturally appropriate health promotion, disease prevention, and sexual education programs for Native Americans.  Ms. Goodman is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Red Earth Center for the American Indian, an organization designed to promote knowledge of Native American arts and cultures.