Keynote Speakers

 

Bernadine Burnette (Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation)

Vice President

Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation

Bernadine Burnette has been a leader of the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation for over a decade, serving as a tribal council member for 16 years.  She is currently the Vice President of the Nation and has held positions of Secretary, Vice President, and President.   Born June 26, 1955 in Sacaton, Arizona Mrs. Burnette was raised by her grandmother on the Fort McDowell Yavapai Indian Reservation. She attended high school at Sherman Indian High School, Riverside, California and graduated in May 1973. Mrs. Burnette subsequently attended Lamson Business College.  Mrs. Burnette worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs for 17 years as a tribal operations specialist. She was also employed as a manager at Fort McDowell Yavapai Materials, and during her tenure there she also served as acting General Manager.  Mrs. Burnette’s public service is vast; beyond her leadership at the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, she also serves on many local and national boards of organizations. She has served on the Wassaja Memorial Health Board, the Environmental Board, and the Education Board and is the founder and former board member of the Fort McDowell Youth Council, Yavapai against Substance Abuse, and Wellness Court Committee. She is a member of the National Congress of American Indians, the National Tribal Environmental Council, the National Indian Education Association, the National Indian Gaming Association, and Vice Chairwomen of Arizona Indian Gaming Association.  Her service has not gone unrecognized. Mrs. Burnette was selected as “Women of the Year” by former Governor Jane Hull and honored by the Arizona Republic for her resolute leadership as one of only seven female Native American tribal presidents in 1999.  In 2007 she was nominated and received an award “The Great Women of Gaming 2007” proven leader for her commitment and tribes stand that brought Tribe- State Compacts in Arizona to reality.

Keith M. Harper (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma)

Partner

Kilpatrick Stockton, LLP & served on the

Obama-Biden Transition Team 

Keith Harper is a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and currently partner at Kilpatrick Stockton, LLC in the Litigation department and heads the Native American Affairs practice group.  Throughout his career, Mr. Harper has represented tribes and individual Indians before Federal Courts, the United States Congress, administrative agencies and international forums in matters involving enforcement of the trust responsibility, expansion and protection of tribal sovereignty, enforcement of tribal treaty rights, protection of land and natural resources, ensuring religious freedom for Native practitioners and development of international instruments guaranteeing the rights of indigenous people.  Among other matters, Mr. Harper has, since inception of the case, represented the plaintiff class of 500,000 individual Indians and continues to serve as class counsel in the landmark Indian trust funds lawsuit, Cobell v. Kempthorne.  Recently Mr. Harper served as a principal advisor and Chair of the Native American Domestic Policy Committee for the Obama campaign and then as a member of the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team in the Energy & Environment Cluster.  Prior to joining the Firm, Mr. Harper was a litigator at the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) and head of the Washington, D.C. Office.  Before that, Mr. Harper also clerked for the Honorable Lawrence W. Pierce, U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit. During his tenure at NARF, he also taught "Federal Indian Law" as Adjunct Professor at Catholic University Columbus School of Law and at American University Washington College of Law.  In 2001, Mr. Harper was appointed Appellate Justice on the highest court of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, where he served until October 2007.  More recently, he served on the Supreme Court of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians.  He is past President of the Native American Bar Association of Washington, D.C. and presently serves as a Board Member for American Progressive Caucus Policy Foundation, the World Organization for Human Rights and Americans for Democratic Action. In 2001, he was selected as a Leadership Conference on Civil Rights delegate to the World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa. In 2008, the National Law Journal selected Mr. Harper as one of 50 “Most Influential Minority Lawyers in America” (5/26/08). Mr. Harper attended the University of California, Berkeley and received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and Psychology in 1990.  He then attended the New York University School of Law where he received his Juris Doctorate in 2004. 

Aneva Yazzie (Navajo Nation)

Chief Executive Officer

Navajo Housing Authority

Ms. Aneva Yazzie currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer for the Navajo Housing Authority (NHA).  She comes to NHA with extensive experience and knowledge in the affordable housing arena especially on tribal lands and HUD’s Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Act funding for Native American housing opportunities.  Her experiences include the full range of leveraging available to Tribally-Designated Housing Entities (TDHEs) that include: the first-ever tax exempt-Section 184 collateralized bond financing in the amount of $25 million to build 317 single family lease-purchase homes; mixed funding with Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) projects for various new construction and rehabilitation projects in the amount of $10 million; grant funding of State Housing Trust Funds in the amount of $1 million for rehabilitation; Title VI loan guarantee financing for $5 million for off-site water and wastewater infrastructure systems and additional $10 million for homes construction for various tribes across the country including Alaskan native communities.  Ms. Yazzie is a full-blood member of the Navajo (Dine) Nation and is a single parent and proud mother of her ten year old daughter, Raven.  Her professional background by education is in Industrial Engineering and has worked ten years as a private engineering/management consultant for native and urban communities in the affordable housing arena combined with 14 years of public sector work with the Department of HUD and Department of Interior.  She also worked as a Deputy Director with the Arizona State Department of Housing under the former Governor Janet Napolitano which has further added to her knowledge of the tax credit financing and State Housing Trust funds for rural and Native American communities.  Ms. Yazzie remains committed to her occupation as a housing professional and dreams of making a difference for all tribal families in attaining true homeownership now and for future generations to come.

Leo A. Daly III, FAIA, RIBA, RAIA

CEO

Leo A Daly

Leo A. Daly III, FAIA, RIBA, RAIA, is Chairman and CEO of LEO A DALY, a US-based international architecture, planning, engineering and interiors firm with 24 offices strategically located worldwide.  Mr. Daly leads a team of more than 1,100 design professionals who are responsible for a broad array of architecture and engineering projects in the US and abroad. The breadth of his firm’s expertise in the US ranges from secure facilities for NORAD and the Strategic Air Command during the Cold War, to contemporary structures, including The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, the North Terminal at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. As leader of his firm, Mr. Daly has provided visionary guidance for major building projects that now stand across the nation and world.  While Mr. Daly’s firm frequently works on upwards of four hundred projects simultaneously, there are certain projects in which he takes a particular interest and devotes his personal expertise to their development.  Since becoming Chairman and President of the firm in 1981 after the passing of his father, Leo A. Daly, Jr., Mr. Daly has continually expanded the firm’s presence in the US and abroad, establishing new offices in Berlin, Dubai, Madrid, Tokyo, Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Phoenix and Las Vegas.   The strength of the firm’s projects overseas has allowed Mr. Daly to promote American architecture, products and services in foreign markets.  Mr. Daly holds professional registration as an architect in 48 states and the District of Columbia, as well as in Australia, Guam, the United Kingdom and the city of Berlin. He received his architectural degree from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He holds professional memberships in AIA, the Royal Institute of British Architects, the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards, and the Society of American Military Engineers, and is a member of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects and the USO World Board of Governors.