Board of Directors
Herb Yazzie is retired Chief Justice of the Navajo Nation, serving from April, 2005 – May, 2015. He is now a farmer and rancher. Retired Chief Justice comes from the community of Dennehotso, Tabaahi clan, born for Kinlichichii’nii, To’ahani (maternal grandparents) and Todich’ii’nii (paternal grandparents). He served as attorney for DNA People’s Legal Services and was legal counsel for the Kayenta Township. He was a school board member of the school at his community and later a member of the Executive Board of the Navajo Area School Board Association. He has also served the Navajo Nation as its Attorney General and as its Chief Legislative Counsel and was an attorney for the Yavapai-Apache Nation. Retired Chief Justice is a military veteran, serving a tour in Vietnam as an Army lieutenant. He is a 1975 graduate of Arizona State University College of Law. Retired Chief Justice Yazzie is Board Chair.
Bess Tsosie is a member of the Kinyaa’a’aniii clan and is born for the Tl’aashchii. Her maternal clan is Tsi’naajinii and her paternal clan are the Ashiinii people. She resides in Sanders, Arizona with her husband, Dr. David J. Tsosie and a grandson. She devoted 12 years of her life to helping her people as a chapter official. She helped in obtaining grants to bring about waterline and electrical lines. She served as the Eastern Navajo Agency Council representative on the Government Development Commission where she served as the President for 4 years. She was instrumental in starting one of the first non-profit organizations (Twilight Dawn Incorporated (TDI)) on the Navajo reservation. TDI started a homeownership program that provided many low income families achieve the American dream of being a homeowner. While working for the Navajo Housing Authority, she organized and implemented resident organizations to address social ills such as bootlegging, domestic violence and gangs. She has since served as a consultant to several Indian Housing programs and was involved in establishing a tri-tribal Indian Nonprofit organization. Bess and her husband, Dr. David Tsosie, are members of Dine Center Research and Evaluation.
Roman Bitsuie was the executive director of the Navajo-Hopi Land Commission Office from 1998-2010 and 1989-1995. He has worked in legal and government affairs since 1974, when he was a Tribal Court Advocate and since then has worked for the Navajo Tax Commission, the Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute Commission, has been a member of the Navajo Nation Council, and has worked in private enterprise. Roman is the first Diné graduate of Princeton University. He is recently retired as Peacemaker Coordinator of the Judicial Branch of the Navajo Nation.
Louisa G. Grant served as an Associate Justice of the Navajo Nation Supreme Court from 2008-2010 and presently works with DNA People’s Legal Services in Window Rock on the Navajo Nation. She was previously District Court Judge of Dilkon Court and Navajo Nation Senior Prosecutor in the Child Sexual Abuse Unit of the Navajo Nation Department of Justice. Justice Grant comes from the community of Standing Horse near Dilkon, Cliff Dweller clan, born for Red Running into the Water Tobacco clan, Big Water (maternal grandparents) and Towering House (paternal grandparents).
Leroy Bedonie retired in December, 2011 after serving 22 years in the Navajo Nation courts. Judge Bedonie was confirmed as a District Court Judge on October 12, 1992 following a two-year probationary term. For almost eight years he served as the District Court Judge at the Chinle Judicial District, and also served at the Window Rock, Tuba City and Kayenta Judicial Districts. Before becoming a judge, he was a police officer and the Director of the Navajo Division of Public Safety. He has also worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Chinle Unified School District. Judge Bedonie is a rancher.
Team Leaders
Andreana and Ariana Young are our mother-daughter leadership team. Andreana (Ann for short) brings community coordination abilities; Ariana brings capabilities and commitment in inter-generational knowledge and outreach to youth, particularly on presenting on Diné Life Skills and supporting youth and families. They embody rural and urban Diné families, and they embody the struggle to weave Diné bizaad and life way with present day life. Here, they are standing in front of a low peak formation which is their family foundation, Bi’ilashii, AZ, which is west of Teec Nos Pos, AZ. Their clans identify them as Diné women.
Ann is Bit’ahnii, born for Kinłichíi’nii. Her maternal grandfather’s clan is Hashtł’ishnii and her paternal grandfather’s clan is Kinyaa’áanii. She is married with two sons, one daughter and a new grandson. Ann is a Traditional Creative Counselor in Diné Bá Álchíní Yił Ádaaní NAVAJO FAMILY VOICES
Ariana is Bit’ahnii, born for Honágháanii. Her maternal grandfather’s clan is Kinlichíi’nii and her paternal grandfather’s clan is Táchii’nii. She attended San Juan College. She strives everyday “to become fluent in Diné Bizaad and continue to live by my words every day.” Ariana is a Traditional Creative Counselor in Diné Bá Álchíní Yił Ádaaní NAVAJO FAMILY VOICES
Elvira Dennison is Resource Advocate with Diné Bá Álchíní Yił Ádaaní NAVAJO FAMILY VOICES. She is Salt Water clan, born for Many Hogans. Prior to joining our programs, she was a volunteer advocate for parents and families of children and youth with extra healthcare needs in the Naschitti-Newcomb area, using her own parental experiences to help parents work with medical providers, schools, and community leaders, self-trained through websites, conferences, books and meetings in order to look after extra health needs of her own family. She is trained in search and rescue as a first level tracker.
Raymond Deal plans family traditional care and counseling programming. He served almost twenty years as Peacemaker and Peacemaker Liaison in the Navajo Nation Peacemaking Program where he worked with the concept of k’e and hozho for family wellness before retiring in September, 2016. He is a U.S. Marine Corp. veteran (1968-72) serving in Vietnam, which he has revisited twice since the end of the war, deeply engaging in collective healing. Ray considers surviving the Vietnam Conflict his greatest victory in life. A very Proud Grandpa of eight beautiful grandchildren, a great granddaughter and many more with all other siblings and relations, August 2012, made Ray a Great Grandfather. Ray has worked with the Family Crisis Center (Farmington) and Home for Women and Children (Shiprock) on Domestic Violence and other abuse issues. Ray joined 20 Americorps members doing Community Service work within Shiprock area under the Navajo Nation Americorps Project and worked with small children at the Tohaali’ Community School. He enjoys sharing cultural music and songs in any capacity of Hozhoogo’ naasha Dooleel (we all walk in beauty).
Ray is Traditional Counselor in our Diné Nihi Kéyah Project and Diné Bá Álchíní Yił Ádaaní NAVAJO FAMILY VOICES.
Gloria Dennison is a land-use matriarch in the Naschitti Chapter area. She is Traditional Mentor to the Diné Nihi Kéyah Project and Diné Bá Álchíní Yił Ádaaní NAVAJO FAMILY VOICES. She is originally from Naschitti, NM. She is a To’dik’ozhi (salt water) born for To’ahanni (near-the-water) clan. Her paternal grandfather is Kinyaa’annii (The towering house). She worked with the Navajo Nation government for 37 years in data management, training and certification of elected leaders to hold offices in the Navajo Nation Government. She served 5 years as a volunteer leader with the Cooperative Extension Service, US Department of Agriculture and New Mexico State University in the growth and development of our youth with participation in 4-H programs. She has served as a Community Land Use Planner and elected Vice President of the Naschitti Community Governance.
Administration & Accounting
Josey Foo is executive director and ex officio board member, having served Diné communities since 2000 — as project attorney with the Diné Nihi Kéyah Project, in the Navajo Nation Supreme Court, Office of the Chief Justice from 2006–2014, and with DNA People’s Legal Services in their Tuba City, Shiprock and Farmington offices. A scholarship kid, she graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Brown University (MFA) and Vassar College. Some years spent as an undocumented person in the USA as well as over 20 years serving Diné communities are her enduring personal foundation. The life journey just flows. She is a Sustainable Economies Law Center Fellow. Her birth country is Malaysia, her home community is overseas Hakka who are related worldwide. She is “adopted” Diné Mud Clan, an immigrant, teacher, carpenter and web developer.
Evelyn Madrid Dulaney is the program accountant. She is a CPA (licensed in NM & TX) who started her own accounting and consulting firm in 2006 serving over 40 non-profit organizations along with for profit organizations. She has served as Director of Finance for local nonprofits over the years. She has over 25 years of experience in accounting, financial management and human resources. She has extensive knowledge of nonprofit and fund accounting, healthcare accounting, cash management and reconciliations, grants management and financial audits including city, state, and federal grant compliance monitoring. She specializes in the setup of accounting systems and conversions, policies and procedures and staff training to facilitate efficiency, compliance and internal controls. Routinely serves as a liaison with clients and their directors to provide fiscal, budgetary, and cash flow oversight, as well as training. She also has experience in the establishment of non-profit organizations and the regulatory requirements.
Law, Land & Governance Toolkitters
University of Arizona, Tribal Justice Law Clinic. Tribal justice law clinic students are working to compile and interpret information that will increase public access to Navajo Nation Supreme Court opinions and the foundations behind them, including the profound challenges that tribal courts universally face when seeking to harmonize Anglo law and indigenous law reasoning. This is a multi-year project begun in January, 2025.
Sustainable Economies Law Center. ICGS has had the benefit of SELC toolkit thinkers since being accepted under SELC’s fellowship program in 2016. SELC cultivates a new legal landscape that supports community resilience and grassroots economic empowerment. It provides essential legal tools – education, research, advice, and advocacy – so communities everywhere can develop their own sustainable sources of food, housing, energy, jobs, and other vital aspects of a thriving community. As new solutions for resilience emerge, many are running into entrenched legal barriers: laws originally designed to protect people from the ills of industrialism are now preventing many communities from growing and selling their own food, investing in local businesses, creating sustainable housing options, and cooperatively owning land and businesses.
Pace University Land Use Law Center. Established in 1993, the Land Use Law Center is dedicated to fostering the development of sustainable communities and regions through the promotion of innovative land use strategies and collaborative decision-making techniques, as well as leadership training, research, education, and technical assistance. LULC’s research faculty and student interns, externs, and seminar-based researchers have provided valuable insights and support to our Diné Nihi Keyah Project since 2021.
Cooperative Professionals Guild. ICGS has been a CPG member and member of CPG’s webinar planning circle since 2022. CPG produces monthly webinars on substantive topics of law and accounting relating to cooperative practice, produces the only annual conference by and for cooperative professionals, and convenes monthly coffee chats of cooperative professionals from across the country, building relationships by collaborating in special interest groups that can host their own meetings and forums.
Tuttle Law Group. Tuttle Law Group provides comprehensive legal services across the lifecycle of cooperative enterprises, from formation to dissolution. Therese Tuttle advises on consumer cooperatives, agricultural cooperatives and worker cooperatives. She also advises clients on business formation and estate planning matters. In 2000, she founded Tuttle & Van Knonynenburg, LLP, a firm focused on cooperative and agricultural law. Prior to founding the firm, she worked for California Farmers Union and served as Director of Cooperative and Economic Development for National Farmer’s Union, managing cooperative project requests from 23 member organizations. In 2013, she drafted amendments to California’s cooperative law that enabled preferred-share financing and capitalization of cooperatives. She has spoken on this topic at annual meetings of the California Center for Cooperative Development and has been awarded USDA’s “Great Cooperator” Award. She serves on the non-profits committee of the California State Bar Association and is a core member of the Cooperative Professionals Guild webinar planning circle.
Emeritus
Trish Thomas was among the founding members of the national Family Voices organization, and brings decades of institutional knowledge to Diné Bá Álchíní Yił Ádaaní NAVAJO FAMILY VOICES. She is from the Pueblo of Laguna Indian Reservation in NM and has Diné grandchildren. She currently lives on Laguna Pueblo but has lived on the East & West Coasts, and traveled to Central America and Europe. She has advocated for many years on behalf of her children as well as other children who have special health care and educational needs at the local, state, regional, national and international level with policy makers, the media, healthcare and educational professionals. She works to bring a better understanding of the needs of families from diverse cultures to the forefront and a better understanding of the issues confronting families from diverse, rural and frontier areas who have children/youth with special needs. She has held many positions over the past years, as a consultant for National Center for Cultural Competency, at Georgetown University Child Development Ctr, The National Center for Youth Transition (Healthy and Ready to Work) in Bangor, ME, and although she is mostly retired, she continues to sit on boards and committees. She has testified before congress on numerous occasions, and worked with congress on issues that impact children of diversity and color, and represented the United States at the International Children’s Congress on Disabilities.
Ezra Rosser served on ICGS board from 2017-2024. He is professor of law and Associate Dean of the Part-Time and Evening Division at American University Washington College of Law and specializes in bilagáana economics in land use.
Eric Trevizo served as the Relief Network Leader of Northern Diné COVID Relief Effort (NDCVRE), volunteering with NDCVRE since the beginning of the COVID-19 surge in 2020, during which he served also as a Navajo Nation Fire Fighter, provided trainings in COVID safety, and performed difficult community search and rescues with his legendary K9, Ash (pictured with Eric). Throughout COVID, Eric kept networks of chapters and senior centers working smoothly together. He coordinated deliveries to homebounds (seniors, disabled and COVID test positives) as well as aiding in food drive-thrus, performing outreach to governmental and community organizations and volunteers, and arranging distribution of all supplies in NDCVRE’s care within days to community members, using well-tested rapid response and supply distribution methods. Eric has been an Actor, Comedian, and Fire Fighter in and around the Navajo Nation where he coordinated Search and Rescues, led safety classes and fought fires to help the communities on the Navajo Nation. He was involved in Shiprock community rapid response for many years, previously as a leader of Shiprock A.L.E.R.T. (2015-16), later renamed Shiprock Search and Rescue. Eric suffered a stroke in February, 2024. Please pray for his continued recovery, thank you all.
Melissa Tatum helped ICGS in its formation and is considered one of our founding matriarchs. She remains a treasured advisory member of our community. She is professor of law at University of Arizona, specializing in Indian and Indigenous peoples’ law. She has written extensively about tribal governments and tribal courts, particularly with respect how they fit within the political and legal structure of the United States.
