NAAAD President: Debbie Atuk

Debbie Atuk is a Tuck MBA living in New York and building an internet movies-on-demand business with two fellow Tuck students. She is originally from Alaska. Her father is Inupiaq Eskimo; her mother is of German-English descent. Debbie began her college career at the University of Alaska in Anchorage then transferred to the University of  Chicago where she earned an AB in Economics. She graduated from Tuck in 2004.

At Tuck, Debbie served as Co-Chair of: Tuck Volunteers, TuckMasters (Tuck’s chapter of Toastmasters International), and corporate sponsorship of the Business Case for Sustainability second annual conference. She also interviewed prospective students for the class of 2006 and participated in a panel on graduate programs during the 2004 All-Ivy Native American Students conference.

While attending UAA, she participated as a delegate for Bering Straits Native Corporation during an annual Alaska Federation of Natives convention. She transferred to the University  of Chicag in 1995 and graduated with an AB in Economics in 1998. She stayed in Chicago after graduating and was an Investment Banking Analyst at SG Cowen and ABN AMRO. She also volunteered at the National Runaway Switchboard for several years where she helped parents and teens.

Executive Committee Member: Brooke Ammann

NAAAD recently welcomed Brooke Ammann, Class of 1997 to the Executive Committee. Brooke Mosay Ammann graduated from Dartmouth College in 1997 with a major in Religion and minor in Native American Studies. After graduating she moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she worked for Sandia Pueblo and then the National Indian Council on Aging. She returned to Wisconsin in 2002 to work as the Education and Youth Director for the St. Croix Chippewa tribe. She took an educational leave of absence in 2004 to attend the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she studied Education Policy and Management. Currently Brooke is involved in work on an alternative high school program in the Maple Plain reservation community. She continues to practice speaking Ojibwemowin, and is working on a project to create short films in the language.

Member-At-Large: Ryan Howard

Ryan Howard is Paiute and Shoshone and was born and raised on the Bishop Paiute Reservation located on the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California.  He is a member of the class of 2001 and holds a bachelors degree in Native American Studies.  He currently resides inOakland,California.

Ryan chose to attend Dartmouth due to its focus on the undergraduate education and its commitment to recruiting and graduating Native American students.  Ryan first heard about Dartmouth from a high school classmate whose older sister graduated from the College in 1994.  Through receiving admission materials and some specific mailings from the Native American recruiter, Ryan decided to apply to two in-state schools and Dartmouth.  After gaining admission and attending the “Perspectives of Dartmouth” fly-in program he knew it was a good fit.  “I was amazed by the intelligence and motivation of the students.  The College has amazing resources and I was very impressed from my first steps on campus.”  While at Dartmouth Ryan was active in NAD, interned for several years in the Admissions Office and was an active member and house manager for Casque & Gauntlet Senior Society.  A highlight of Ryan’s Dartmouth experience was his participation in the History Foreign Study Program (FSP) which took him to London for a quarter. 

After leaving Hanover, Ryan spent one year working for his tribe’s social services program as a case manager and has spent nearly three years working for California Indian Legal Services (CILS), where he is currently employed as a project coordinator.   In his current position, Ryan provides technical assistance and training to California tribes that currently operate social services programs through the government funded Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program. 

Ryan’s future career goals include earning a law degree and becoming a legal services attorney working in Indian Country.  His career aspirations stem from personal and work experiences.  While working for his tribe, Ryan counseled many Indian families whose barriers to employment included significant unresolved legal issues.  Ryan states, “I’ve always known that I wanted a career helping people and affecting change.  I see a legal career as furthering both.”

Member-At-Large: Liz Sumida Huaman

Liz Sumida Huaman graduated with a BA in Anthropology modified with Native American Studies in 1998. Her mother is Huanca/Quechua from the central Andes Peru, and her father is from Nagoya, Japan. At Dartmouth, Liz was actively involved in NAD, NAS and NAP. She served on NAD Council and was the Program Liaison to the Native American House. Liz also worked closely with La Alianza Latina, Asian Pacific American Issues Forum, and was the Multicultural Program Coordinator at the Tucker Foundation. She was the first Native student to participate in the Dartmouth-Stanford NA Exchange and spent two terms at Stanford University. In addition, Liz was involved with academic and leadership groups on campus, like the Mellon Fellows, Palaeopitus and Casque and Gauntlet.

Liz’s choice to attend university stemmed from her immigrant parents, a teacher and a contractor, to whom higher education was an expectation. They raised Liz with strong social justice convictions and instilled in her the belief that the prestige of formal schooling could lead to social change. Liz chose Dartmouth because of its small size, focus on undergraduate education and reputed Native American Program. Upon visiting Dartmouth, Liz was impressed by the closeness of the Native students and while the campus was in New Hampshire, a very foreign environment, she has not regretted her decision and is grateful for the inspiring network of Native students, alumni and professors that the Dartmouth experience has brought together.

In 1998, Liz received a Lombard Fellowship from the Dickey Foundation to start up the Tohatchi Youth Center, serving five districts of the Navajo Nation in New Mexico. Tohatchi Youth Center, now Tohatchi Boys and Girls Club, has hundreds of members and volunteers and Liz’s first group of youth are currently successful university students. In 1999, Liz worked with the Tucker Foundation to start a spring break service program linking NAD’s with youth in Tohatchi providing workshops on leadership, academic and community development topics.

In 2000, Liz joined an all-Native research team at Circles of Wisdom at the Santa Fe Indian School, where Pueblo Community-Based Education and developing appropriate methodology for research in Pueblo communities was the focus. Circles of Wisdom deepened Liz’s connection to other Native communities doing similar work from Alaska to New Zealand. In 2003, Liz received her Ed.M from Harvard Graduate School of Education in international comparative education. Since then, Liz has served as the Program Coordinator for the London District Chiefs Council in Ontario, Canada. Liz headed up the “Youth Development Model,” an eight-First Nation initiative that is community and culturally-based in Anishinaabe, Lunaape and Oneida languages and philosophies for teaching youth. Starting in Fall 2005, Liz will begin her doctorate at Columbia University in New York City.

Member-At-Large: Nehomah Thundercloud

Nehomah Thundercloud is Ho-Chunk from Black River Falls, WI. She is a member of the Class of 1997 with a degree in Sociology. Remembering what she looked for in a college, Nehomah’s first criteria was that the school had to be out of the state.

It was in 1991 at a Veteran’s Day Pow-wow when Nehomah first heard about Dartmouth.  That was when she met her distant cousin who was a Dartmouth Class of ‘91. The high recommendation her cousin gave Dartmouth’s Native American Program made Dartmouth her first and only choice. Once at  Dartmouth, it took a while for Nehomah to find an area of study she wanted to commit to. “I guess being from a small town did not prepare me for the lively excitement of Hanover. It was because of intense social engagements that I decided to take the Parkhurst FSP.” 

Taking the extended D-plan allowed Nehomah to become more involved in campus activities. Some of the campus organizations she participated in were NAD, Gospel Choir, Tucker Foundation, The Tabard Co-Ed Fraternity, and the Hopkins Center Student Advisory Committee. Nehomah completed the required coursework to officially graduate in December 1997.

Nehomah returned home to work in the Ho-Chunk Nation Legislature and later transferred to the Ho-Chunk Head Start Program working as the Family and Community Partnership Coordinator. Another one of her goals had always been to work for her former school. So in 2000, Nehomah took a job coordinating the Title VII services for the Black River Falls School District.  During her five years with the school district, Native student retention and graduation rates greatly improved.

Last summer, Nehomah enrolled in the Hospitality and Tourism graduate program at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. With a concentration in cultural tourism and gaming she feels she will be better able to help her tribe diversity tribal enterprises. She is currently beginning her second year and will graduate in May of 2006.