NICOA Hosts “Why Every Elder Vote Counts”: A Live Webinar Oct. 1

Jacqueline De León is an enrolled member of the Isleta Pueblo. As a staff attorney at Native American Rights Fund (NARF), she helps lead field hearings across Indian Country on Native American voting rights and practices ongoing voter rights litigation.

Prior to her work at NARF, De León was a senior associate at WilmerHale for four years focusing on international antitrust and litigation. She holds a Juris Doctor degree from Stanford and a Bachelor of Arts from Princeton University in philosophy. De León clerked for Judge William H. Walls of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey and Chief Justice Dana Fabe of the Alaska Supreme Court.

Charmaine S. Fuller Cooper is the South Region AARP campaigns field manager and campaign liaison on multicultural voter engagement efforts focusing on American Indian and Alaska Native and African American audiences.

Her leadership and advocacy efforts over the past 20 years include legislative and voter education campaign experience, grassroots advocacy management, passing state racial justice capital punishment reforms, leading groundbreaking eugenics compensation efforts in North Carolina which opened the door to increased justice efforts in other states and internationally, and advancing health and aging policy and advocacy.

Her work has intersected with both health and economic barriers faced too often by communities of color, and her passion for justice is strong force that drives her. She is a tenacious woman with rural roots who recognizes the additional access barriers faced by minority communities due to geography and zip codes and works to address them daily.

She is a native North Carolinian and graduate of North Carolina Central University and North Carolina State University. She continues to be an engaged voice on authentic leadership, intentional diversity and inclusion in her work with several nonprofit boards, including the United Way of North Carolina and the North Carolina Coalition on Aging.

Larry Curley is the executive director of the National Indian Council on Aging and a member of the Navajo Nation with over 40 years of experience working in the aging and healthcare fields. He has worked with Congress, other branches of the federal government, and national organizations on aging to develop support for programs affecting elder American Indians.

After receiving his master’s degree in public administration at the University of Arizona, along with a certificate in gerontology, Larry worked as a gerontological planner at an Area Agency on Aging in Pima County, Arizona, where he was instrumental in establishing a county public fiduciary program. As a lobbyist in Washington, D.C., he successfully advocated for the passage of Title VI of the Older Americans Act, an amendment which he wrote.

He directed the Navajo Nation’s Head Start program, one of the five largest Head Start programs in the country. Larry has served as a nursing home administrator of a tribal, long-term care facility, as a hospital administrator in northern Nevada, and as a college instructor at the University of Nevada-Reno and Eastern Washington University.

He was named as the assistant dean of the Four Corners region for the Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine. He’s also served as the public representative on the American College of Physicians Clinical Guidelines Committee, and as the director of program development for the Rehoboth McKinley Christian Health Care Services in northwest New Mexico.

Rebecca Owl Morgan is a project coordinator at NICOA. She is an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians located in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. She has degrees in history and library science. She enjoys locating and developing resources to aid Native elders and those who care for them. She shares her life with a wonderful husband, two children and three grandchildren.

Sue Chapman has been the director of the Senior Community Service Employment Program for the National Indian Council on Aging (NICOA) for seven years. Prior to working at NICOA, she worked as a director for the Workforce Investment Opportunity Act for 16 years and as a job developer with Vocational Rehabilitation for 11 years.

Sue is a certified workforce development professional, and has experience working with individuals with disabilities, at-risk youth and elder workers through workforce programs.

Desiree Lapahie is the data analyst for the National Indian Council on Aging (NICOA) and a member of the Navajo Nation. She is from Naschitti, New Mexico. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of New Mexico. She has experienced the struggles of being a caregiver while caring for her maternal grandmother.

While working as a caregiver she realized the challenges the aging population faces. She started working as a public policy intern at the Alzheimer’s Association and advocated for policy changes that would benefit the aging population. She is honored to work with the amazing team at NICOA and help the American Indian and Alaska Native elders work towards a brighter future.

Leslie Nicole Maly is the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) compliance manager at the National Indian Council on Aging (NICOA). She entered the field of aging in 2006 when she was hired at NICOA as the executive assistant to the SCSEP director.

In her years at NICOA, she has gained the knowledge and ability to help elders across the country in urban and rural areas. She has witnessed the struggles many elders have to cope with due to lack of financial stability, education and work experience, and she is committed to the research and hard work it takes to help implement improvements in the aging community.