Agenda

Victor E. Woods, Vice Chairman for the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians

Victor E. Woods has served the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay as Vice Chairman since 2015. He previously served as a councilman in 2011. His passion for serving comes from his family as his father, great uncle and cousin served terms as Chairman, and several of his family members have held various positions on the Viejas Tribal Council.

He spent his early childhood on the Viejas Indian Reservation and maintained close ties to his community after his family moved to northern San Diego County during his formative years. He returned to the Viejas Indian Reservation in the late 1980’s as a full-time resident bringing with him extensive experience in the hospitality and corporate industries.

As Vice Chairman, his focus is on the daily operations of the Viejas Tribal Government and he is committed to ensuring excellence in all departments, programs, and business activities of the Viejas tribe. As a Councilman, his areas of responsibilities included working with Tribal Security, Viejas Fire Department, All Mission Indian Housing Authority (AMIHA), Internet gaming and advocacy. He is among the first group of employees of the Viejas Casino; specifically employee number 800 in the Food & Beverage Department. While learning front and back of the house operations he also served the Tribe on several committees including Enrollment, Wellness, Housing, Hotel, and Finance.

Vice Chairman Woods was called to serve and prides himself on listening to what the community desires and strives to bridge the gap between the Viejas People and Tribal Government. On a more personal level, he is most proud to have overcome difficult circumstances he has faced in life. An avid adventurer, he enjoys traveling and experiencing new cultures. He balances his commitment to the Viejas community and an explorer’s spirit with passion, sensitivity and a bit of humor to get the job done. As much as he loves his next adventure, he enjoys most the time spent with his family and those he proudly serves.

Cheree Peterson, Deputy Regional Administrator Environmental Protection Agency, Region 9

Cheree Peterson began at EPA Region 9 as Deputy Regional Administrator May 8, 2023. She has served as both the Regional Business Director and the Regional Programs Director for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) South Pacific Division, headquartered in San Francisco, which encompasses California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and parts of five other states. She has extensive senior-level experience implementing environmental and other federal programs within much of the EPA Region 9 footprint, which includes working with the public and communities, state and local agencies, tribes, elected officials, and congressional staff.

Cheree has 25 years of federal service, including a significant tour with the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and a legislative fellowship with the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. She has been in the Senior Executive Service for almost seven years and has a depth and breadth of experience managing and directing a large, interdisciplinary organization - delivering programs governed by environmental and other statutes. Her DEIAB leadership at the USACE is nationally recognized, resulting in a significantly more diverse organization. Her environmental regulatory experience includes implementing a $10 billion program that included environmental restoration and the Clean Water Act 404 wetlands regulatory program. Cheree was directly responsible for senior-level technical staff overseeing 2,000 subordinate technical staff, including environmental planners, program managers, and environmental scientists.

After graduating from the University of Washington with her master’s degree in public administration and her bachelor’s in environmental studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, Cheree began her career at OMB. She oversaw the then $4 billion USACE accounts and specialized in environmental restoration, the Everglades, rivers and harbors maintenance, and the regulatory program. After a fellowship with the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee, Water Resources Sub-Committee in 1998, Cheree moved to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, where she built partnerships with various federal agencies, including the USACE and the Department of Interior. Cheree also spent more than a year in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Budget Office, writing budget narrative and overseeing the Service’s land acquisition program.

Mervin Wright Jr., Executive Director for the Pyramid Lake Fisheries of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe

Mervin is currently the Executive Director for the Pyramid Lake Fisheries of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe. He received a Bachelors of Science in Agriculture Engineering from California State University, Chico and received a Masters of Science in Hydrologic Sciences from the University of Nevada, Reno. Mervin was initially employed by the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe in 1991 as their Water Resources Director with the primary duty negotiating the Truckee River Operating Agreement. He served in many capacities with the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe some of which include; 3 terms as the Tribal Chairman, 3 terms as the Vice Chairman, and 2 terms as a Council member, along with serving on local, regional, and national committees and boards. His dedication emphasizes conviction to recover Pyramid Lake fishery and to restore its complimentary habitat.

He received the inaugural Nevada Indian Commission American Indian Community Leader of the year in 2010, and in October, 2022 he received the EPA Region 9 Conner Byestewa Jr. Environmental Award. He just completed a second term as the EPA Region 9 Regional Tribal Operations Committee Tribal Co-Chair.

Rebecca Tsosie, Professor of Law at the James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona, and member of the Arizona Bar Association and California Bar Association

Rebecca Tsosie is a Regents Professor and Morris K. Udall Professor of Law at the James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona. Professor Tsosie teaches in the areas of Federal Indian law, Property, Constitutional Law, Cultural Resources Law, and Critical Race Theory. Prior to joining the University of Arizona in 2016, Professor Tsosie was a Regents Professor at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, where she also served as Vice Provost for Inclusion and Community Engagement. Professor Tsosie was the first faculty Executive Director of ASU’s Indian Legal Program and served in that position for fifteen years. While at ASU, Professor Tsosie also held an academic appointment with the faculty of Philosophy within the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, and she served as an affiliate faculty member for the American Indian Studies Program and a Distinguished Sustainability Scientist for the Global Institute of Sustainability.

Professor Tsosie, who is of Yaqui descent, is recognized nationally and internationally for her work in the fields of Federal Indian law and Indigenous peoples’ human rights. Professor Tsosie is a member of the Arizona Bar Association and the California Bar Association. She serves as an appellate judge for the Supreme Court of the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, as well as the San Carlos Tribal Court of Appeals. Professor Tsosie received her Bachelor of Arts and Juris Doctorate degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, and she was also a President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California.

Carmen Lucas, Representative on the California Truth & Healing Council for the Southern California region

Carmen Lucas is a Kwaaymii Laguna Indian from Laguna Mountain, San Diego County, and has been a student of her Indian heritage throughout her life. She learned about cultural landscapes and Ancestral human remains from her father, the late Tom Lucas, and has learned about essence of place and intangible cultural resources from being caretaker of her homeland and burial grounds at the former Laguna Indian Reservation, now Lucas ranch, for the last fifty years.

After a twenty year career in the United States Marine Corps, Carmen has worked in the field of Cultural Resource Management (CRM) as a Native American Monitor, Consultant, and Educator for nearly forty years, bringing a tribal perspective to cultural resource surveys, planning, and mitigation. She has helped archaeologists in sifting dirt and identifying fragmented Ancestor remains as well as archaeological deposits. Carmen is a strong proponent of preservation in place and advocates for increased use of noninvasive technology in identifying resources, including the use of historic human remains detection canines.

Along with historians and her attorney, Carmen has helped to write and successfully nominate at least five historic properties to the National Register of Historic Places based on their tribal cultural values: Ah-ha Kwe-ah-mac’ (Cuyamaca Village), Wiipuk uun’ yaw (Cottonwood Trail), The Kwaaymii Homeland (Lucas Ranch), Ah-Ha’ Mut-ta-tie’ (Laguna “Water” Mountain), and University House at the University of California, San Diego, the rehabilitation of which won the 2015 Governor’s Historic Preservation Award.

Carmen has provided Cultural Resource Sensitivity Training on utility and other projects for all workers who will be in the field to help them identify and respect resources of concern, and is a frequent presenter of local Indian reservations to train new classes of tribal monitors. She served two terms on the Board of the San Diego Archaeological Center (museum and curation facility) and served as an appointee for ten years on the San Diego County Historic Sites Board (designating local historic properties).

Carmen has been recognized by the Society for California Archaeology with the California Indian Heritage Preservation Award (2004), the City of San Diego Historical Resources Board with the Annual Historic Preservation Award for Cultural Diversity (2014), and the California Office of Historical Preservation with the Governor’s Historic Preservation Award (2017). She currently serves as an appointed member on the California Truth & Healing Council, created by Governor Gavin Newsom to bear witness, to record, examine the documentation of, and receive California Indian narratives to clarify the records of the relationship between the state and tribes, as one of three voting representatives from the Southern California region (San Diego and Imperial Counties).