April 30, 2012 –
President Obama Announces Jodi Gillette as Senior Policy Advisor for Native American Affairs
WASHINGTON, DC – President Barack Obama announced the appointment of Jodi Gillette as Senior Policy Advisor for Native American Affairs last Friday. As a member of the Domestic Policy Council, Gillette will advise the President on issues impacting Indian Country. She replaces Kim Teehee who announced she is moving on in a White House blog last week.
“Jodi Gillette will be an important member of my Administration’s efforts to continue the historic progress we’ve made to strengthen and build on the government-to-government relationship between the United States and tribal nations,” said President Obama. “She has been a key member of my administration’s efforts for Indian Country, and will continue to ensure that Native American issues will always have a seat at the table.”
Jodi Gillette, an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota and South Dakota, was previously the Deputy Assistant Secretary to the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs for Policy and Economic Development in the U.S. Department of the Interior. Prior to joining the Assistant Secretary’s staff, she served as Deputy Associate Director of Intergovernmental Affairs and Associate Director of Public Engagement, where she was responsible for the communication and interaction between tribal nations and the White House. She played a key role in the White House Tribal Nations Conference in 2009 and 2010, where the President hosted tribal leaders from across the U.S.. Prior, Ms. Gillette had served as executive director of the Native American Training Institute in Bismarck, a non-profit offering technical assistance and training to tribal, state and local governments in the area of human service delivery systems. She also had served as an economic development planner for her tribe in Fort Yates, N.D. Ms. Gillette holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government and Native American Studies from Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. (1991) and a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs in Minneapolis (2003).