Related links: Chair and vice chair appointed

February 2, 2005

Three new members joined the Council in January 2005, two from Montana and one from Oregon.

Bruce Measure of Kalispell, Montana, and Rhonda Whiting of St. Ignatius, Montana, were appointed to the Council by Governor Brian Schweitzer. A graduate of the University of Montana Law School, Measure has practiced law in Kalispell since 1988. Prior to his appointment to the Council he was president of the Board of Trustees of the Flathead Electric Cooperative. Measure, trained as a forester, served as vice president of the East Side Forest Practices Committee in 1984 and 1985. In 1991, he was elected to a two-year term in the Montana House of Representatives where he served on the Natural Resources; Fish, Wildlife and Parks; and Judiciary committees.

Whiting, a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, was vice president of communications and intergovernmental affairs for Salish and Kootenai Technologies, the largest information technology company in Montana, before being appointed to the Council. In 1998 she was appointed by President Clinton to oversee 17 tribal business information centers across the nation, and she also has operated her own communications consulting firm. She holds bachelor's and master's degrees in education, and a law degree, all from the University of Montana.

Joan Dukes was appointed to the Council by Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski. Dukes resigned her seat in the Oregon Senate, where she had served since 1987, to join the Council. She is a resident of Svensen, a community near Astoria. Dukes, who served a four-year term as a Clatsop County commissioner before being elected to the Senate, has a broad base of experience in education, transportation and fisheries issues at the local, county and state levels, including having served as chair of the Pacific Fisheries Legislative Task Force, an association of western legislators that works on regional fish issues. She is a graduate of the Evergreen State College.