June 27th, 2020

Dear Friends of Sen. John McCoy;

On June 12^th, 2020, Sen. McCoy received a Master of Public Administration honorary degree from The Evergreen State College during commencement. Earlier that day, he also received the 2020 Public Official of the Yearaward from the college’s Master of Public Administration program. Finally, to ensure that Sen. McCoy’s legacy of supporting Native student education continues, we are currently working to endow a scholarship in the senator’s name to support future MPA Tribal Governance students.

While presenting the honorary degree during commencement, Evergreen President Dr. George Bridges referenced the senator’s extraordinary educational leadership in Native education throughout the state, including passage of the Since Time Immemorial Legislation, legislation establishing tribal compact schools in Washington state and co-founding the Tribal Leaders Congress in Education.

Sen. McCoy, the Tulalip Tribes, and the Muckleshoot Tribe helped establish the Advanced Studies in Tribal Governance program in Evergreen’s Master of Public Administration program, which Faculty Emeriti Alan Parker (Chippewa Cree) and Linda Moon Stumpff (Apache) co-founded in 2000.

The 10^th MPA Tribal Governance class graduated this past June. Our alumni of Tribal Students have played a lead role in transformative change as they have filled key positions throughout Indian Country. President Joe DeLaCruz of the Quinault Indian Nation, a visionary leader of the past generation, saw such a goal when he called upon Parker and Stumpff to design and teach this program.

We are creating an endowed scholarship fund that will allow the Senator’s educational and public service leadership to continue to impact current and future generations.  We plan to begin distributing scholarships during the upcoming academic year with individual donations to launch the program, while we build an endowment to provide scholarships in perpetuity.

“When I first came home and started to work on building the Tribe’s resources, one of those resources was getting our Tribal students educated. Getting them educated was very important so that we could build on our resources and help our people grow.” –Sen. John McCoy (Tulalip)

For more information on the Sen. John McCoy Endowed Scholarship, please contact Tina Kuckkahn-Miller, J.D. (Ojibwe), Vice President for Indigenous Arts, Education and Tribal Relations, at (360) 918-1817 or by email at kuckkaht@evergreen.edu.

We invite you to join us by making an online contribution here: Senator McCoy Scholarship

Respectfully,

Tina Kuckkahn-Miller, J.D. (Citizen, Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe)

Vice President for Indigenous Arts, Education and Tribal Relations

The Evergreen State College

Olympia WA 98505

Alan R Parker, J.D. (Citizen, Chippewa Cree Tribal Nation)

Adjunct Faculty, The Maori Indigenous University and

Faculty Emeritus, The Evergreen State College