Verna Fowler
President
College of the Menominee Nation
Verna Fowler, of Menominee and Stockbridge-Munsee
heritage, is an enrolled member of the
Menominee Indian
Tribe of Wisconsin. She was born and raised on the
Menominee Indian Reservation where she currently resides.
Dr. Fowler has taught at the elementary, secondary, and
college levels and has administered schools at the
elementary and college level. She has been involved in
education in northeastern Wisconsin since 1968. In
addition, she has served the Menominee Indian Tribe as the
Superintendent of Education, Director of Credit and Finance
Department, and as the Executive Director of the Menominee
Restoration Committee. She also served as an aide to
Ada Deer during the Menominee Restoration movement.
Dr. Fowler is presently the founding President of the
College
of the Menominee Nation, a reservation based community
college.
Dr. Fowler received her baccalaureate degree from Silver
Lake College, Manitowoc, WI and her M.Ed. and Ph.D. degrees
from the University of North Dakota. In her doctoral
work, she was the recipient of a Patricia Roberts Harris
fellowship. She holds an honorary doctorate from the
University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.
Dr. Fowler currently serves as the past President of the
American Indian College Fund Board (AICF), and is the
former Vice-President of the
American
Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC). She is
co-Chair of the 1994 Land Grant Colleges USDA Leadership
Committee. She also served on the
White House Initiative on Tribal Colleges and Universities
as appointed by President Clinton. She was re-appointed to
serve by President Bush in November 2006. She is also
a Trustee for the
Higher
Learning Commission of the North Central Association
Board that approves the accreditation status for all
Colleges and Universities in the 19 states located in the
heartland of the United States of America. In May,
2008, Dr Fowler received and honorary Doctorate of Law
degree from the University of Green Bay. Dr. Fowler is a co-founder of the
Sisters of a New Genesis, a religious order of women in
the Green Bay Diocese. She has served as a member of
the Executive Team and currently is their elected leader.
Dr. Fowler wrote the Menominee entry for Dr.
Frederick Hoxie’s Encyclopedia of North American Indians and authored The Menominee
published in 2001 by the Steck-Vaugh Company in the Indian
Nations Series with co-editors Herman Viola and David
Jeffrey.
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