Commissioners Biographical Information

Commissioner Joyce Begay-Foss (Diné) is the Director of Education at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The museum, operated by the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, preserves and interprets historic and contemporary collections and information about New Mexico's Native peoples.

An accomplished Navajo weaver for over 25 years she has won numerous awards at the Santa Fe Indian Market, the Eight Northern Pueblos Arts and Crafts Show, and the San Felipe Arts and Crafts Show. She draws on this expertise as a writer, instructor, and lecturer on traditional Native textiles and dyeing techniques. She has been involved in addressing issues and concerns of intellectual and cultural property rights of the Southwestern Tribes especially with Diné (Navajo) weavers.

Commissioner Rebecca Webster is an enrolled member of the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin and serves the Oneida Tribe as a Staff Attorney, providing legal advice on issues related to real estate, probate, planning, land use, zoning and environmental concerns. When she is not practicing law, she enjoys spending time creating Iroquois raised beadwork, a style of beadwork unique to the Iroquois people containing designs that symbolize Iroquoian culture. Her beadwork has won several awards at Oneida art shows. As an active community member, she has also dedicated herself to preserving Oneida culture, arts, and crafts by teaching others to create traditional corn husk dolls, moccasins, outfits, fans and silver jewelry.

Commissioner Webster received her B.A. in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin - Madison in 2000; her M.P.A. in Public Management from the Robert M. LaFollette School of Public Affairs in 2003; and her J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 2003.

Commissioner Elmer Guy is President of Navajo Technical College, a tribal college established and chartered by the Navajo Nation. The Navajo Tech prepares Navajo and other students with quality technical and vocational education, associate degrees, or community education. The college addresses the needs of the Navajo Nation, transitioning students directly into the work force, or to 4-year schools. He has served a broad range of educational organizations in a variety of capacities. He is a board member to the American Indian Higher Education Consortium and served on the boards of the Navajo North Central Association, the Dine College Board of Regents, and the National Indian Education Association. He has been an advisory member to the American Indian Rehabilitation Research and Training Center at Northern Arizona University.

Commissioner Guy received his B.A. in Special Education from the University of Arizona in 1977 and his M.A. in Rehabilitation Administration from the University of San Francisco in 1978. Mr. Guy is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Arizona.

Commissioner Rose Fosdick is an enrolled member of the Nome Eskimo Community. She is Vice President of Kawerak, Inc.'s Natural Resources Division, which has six programs that emphasize resources unique to the Bering Strait region: the Eskimo Heritage Program, Eskimo Walrus Commission, Fisheries Program, Subsistence Resources Program, Land Management Services, and Reindeer Herders Association. She serves on the board of the Bering Strait Inuit Cooperative, a grassroots organization which sells Alaska Native art at venues. She also enjoys learning how to sew using traditional Inuit clothing patterns.

Commissioner Fosdick received her B.A. in Biological Sciences from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1990.

Charles Harwood is the Director of the Federal Trade Commission's Northwest Regional Office, located in Seattle. The Northwest Regional Office oversees the FTC's consumer protection and antitrust law enforcement and public education activities in Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, and the northern Rocky Mountain states. For the past ten years, the Northwest Regional Office has worked on campaigns to educate consumers and businesses about laws and practices that help ensure truthful and accurate marketing and sale of Indian and Alaska Native arts and crafts.

Mr. Harwood is an attorney and a member of the Oregon State Bar and the District of Columbia Bar. He received his B.A. in Political Science from Whitman College in 1980 and his J.D. from Willamette University in 1983.

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