Strength Based Leadership

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Kathi Littlejohn

Kathi is a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and has been telling stories since 1986. She is well known for delivering her stories in a dramatic, entertaining, expressive and down to earth style. Kathi was a featured artist in 2017 for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s “Eclipse Event” at Clingman’s Dome, and has performed at the National American Indian Museum in Washington, D.C.; in Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, the Museum of Cherokee Indian in North Carolina, and at festivals and events throughout the region. She is featured in “Living Stories of the Cherokee”, an award winning collection of stories published by the University of North Carolina Press; and is regularly consulted by universities, organizations and schools for her knowledge.

Joyce Dugan

Joyce Conseen Dugan is a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in Cherokee, North Carolina. She is a graduate of Western Carolina University, where she received both her BS (1974) and MS (1981) in Education. She began her education career as a teacher's assistant in the Cherokee Central School system and after obtaining her degree was employed as a teacher, progressing on to become Director of Federal Programs, and in 1990 became the Superintendent of the same school system, a post she held for five years. In 1995, she ran for and won the office of Principal Chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, the first woman to hold that office and to date, the only woman to hold this office. She held this office for a term of four years, after which she was employed by the tribe's casino enterprise to develop a program for tribal members to assume management of the business, and later became the casino's Director of Public, Government and Community Relations. In 2009, she returned to the Cherokee school system from which she retired in 2011.

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