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Officers

Jerilyn DeCoteau - President

Jerilyn Monette DeCoteau is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. She has practiced Indian law for nearly 23 years. She teaches as an adjunct at DU law school and is a judge on her tribe’s appellate court. She received her law degree from the University of Oregon Law School and then clerked for the Federal District Court in Portland, Oregon. She served as a staff attorney at the Native American Rights Fund, trial attorney at D.O.J in the Indian Resources Section, Director of the Indian Law Clinic at the University of Colorado Law School, and counsel for her own tribe. She lives in Eldorado Springs with her husband.

Dave Heisterkamp - Vice-President

Dave Heisterkamp is a principal in the thirty-one year old Denver law firm of Wagenlander & Heisterkamp, LLC. The firm is cross-cultural practicing in the fields of Indian, housing, landlord-tenant, contract, construction and international law. Currently Wagenlander & Heisterkamp LLC is general counsel to eleven tribal housing programs situated throughout the country as well as six public housing authorities in Colorado and a number of small and medium size companies. Much of his practice involves Indian housing both on reservations and on national issues. Mr. Heisterkamp served as legal counsel to several of the tribal and housing representatives to the Negotiated Rulemaking Committees appointed by HUD to draft regulations for the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996 (NAHASDA) and various amendments thereto. In this capacity, he also served on several Rulemaking Committee workgroups which did much of the actual drafting of the regulatory requirements. He has successfully argued on behalf of tribal housing entities for dismissal of employment discrimination suits in the Eighth and Ninth Circuit Federal Courts of Appeals. Mr. Heisterkamp earned his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire and his law degree from the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado.

Jennifer Weddle - Treasurer

Jennifer Harvey Weddle is in private practice with Holland & Hart LLP, where she serves as the manager for the firm's Indian Law Practice Group. She practices in the areas of civil litigation and tribal resources.

Kris Carpenter - Secretary

Kristen A. Carpenter serves as Secretary to the Colorado Indian Bar Association. She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law where she teaches Property, Indian Law, and Native American Natural & Cultural Resources. Carpenter attended Dartmouth College (A.B., cum laude, French and Native American Studies, 1994) and Harvard Law School (J.D., cum laude, 1998). Following law school, Carpenter clerked for the Honorable John C. Porfilio, United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Denver and then practiced at Hill & Barlow, P.C., in Boston, MA. She joined the full-time faculty at Suffolk University Law School in 2002 and previously worked at firms specializing in Indian law, including Fredericks, Pelcyger & Hester, (now) in Louisville, CO, and Sonosky, Chambers, Sachse, Miller & Munson, in Anchorage, AK, as well as the Office of Legal Counsel at the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation. Carpenter serves as faculty advisor to the DU Native American Law Students Association and is involved in several community organizations.