NANAINA 2004-2006 Board

Meet NANAINA's hard working board. We are always available to answer your questions, hear suggestions and tell you about our activities past and future!

President:

Debra M. Smith, RN, PHN, MS

Deb Smith was born and raised on the Fond du Lac Reservation in northeastern Minnesota. She is enrolled through her father’s tribe, the Shoshone of Wind River Wyoming. Deb received her baccalaureate in Nursing from the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, MN in 1977. She received her master’s in Public Health Nursing from the University of Minnesota in 1997. She is currently the Director of Public Health Nursing for the Fond du Lac Reservation.

Deb has nursing experience in hospital nursing, coronary intensive care, home care, nursing education and public health nursing. She was a Certified Diabetes Educator and Diabetes Nurse Clinician and was the Manager for the Duluth Diabetes Center in the early 1990’s. She taught in the first class of nursing students at the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College and she is currently on the Nursing Advisory Committee for that institution. Deb is active with many state health committees and task forces. She is currently a board member and officer for the local hospital in Cloquet, MN.

Deb and her husband Ed have three children in post-graduate, college and high school. Deb and her family enjoy traveling and spending time at their cabin.

E-mail: [email protected]

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President Elect:

Roxanne Struthers

Roxanne Struthers (Year 2 of a two-year term). Roxanne is an enrolled member of the Red Lake Ojibwe tribe in Minnesota and was born and raised on the White Earth Reservation in Northwestern Minnesota. She is an assistant professor at the University of MN School of Nursing. She has a BSN from Bemidji State University, a MS in nursing with a focus in rural health from the University of North Dakota and a Doctorate in Nursing from the University.

E-mail: [email protected]

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Secretary:

Martha Baker

Martha Baker RN, PhD is the Director of the BSN Program for the Southwest Baptist University in Springfield, MO. She can be reached at:

Voice: (417) 820-5058
Fax:(417) 887-4847
E-mail: [email protected]

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Treasurer:

Bette Keltner, PhD, RN (Cherokee)

Bette Keltner PhD, RN (Year 2 of a two-year term). She is an enrolled member of the Cherokee nation. Bette is currently the Dean of the School of Nursing at Georgetown University. She has served two terms as President for the NANAINA and is a founding member of the National Coalition for Ethnic Minority Nurse Associations.

E-mail: brk.georgetown.edu

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Past President:

Lillian Tom-Orme, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN
(Year 2 of a two-year term)

Lillian is an enrolled member of the Navajo or Dine’ nation. She is currently a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Utah.

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Member-at-Large:

Lanette Perkins
(2 year term)

Lanette is an enrolled member of the Crow Tribe of Montana. She attended the Salish Kootenai College and received her BSN from Montana State University in 1997. Currently, she is the Native American Patient Advocate for Deaconess Billings, Clinic in Billings, MT.

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Student Member:

Misty L. Wilkie, RN, MS

Misty L. Wilkie currently lives in Wadena, MN with her son, Zachary. She is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa tribe located in Belcourt, ND. She grew up on multiple Indian Reservations and has valued the relationships she formed with reservation members. Her nursing education started with an Associate in Science degree from the Hibbing Community College in 1997. She then obtained an Associate in Arts in 1999 from the Hibbing Community College and a Bachelor of Science from the Bemidji State University. In 2003 Misty received her Master of Science (Adult Health focus) from the University of North Dakota. Currently, she is enrolled in the doctoral program at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing and expects to complete it in May 2006.

Misty has experience as a Maternal and Child Health Nurse on the Bois Forte Reservation in northern Minnesota, in both hospital nursing and as a graduate research assistant. Her goal is to improve health care for American Indians as well as provide knowledge on organ donation and is working toward increasing the number of American Indians who are willing to be organ donors.

E-mail: [email protected]

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