WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) issued the following statement on the nomination of University of New Mexico School of Law Dean Kevin K. Washburn's nomination to serve as Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior:
"UNM's School of Law has flourished under the direction of Kevin Washburn. Like former Assistant Secretary Larry Echo Hawk, Kevin will bring to the position an in-depth understanding of the issues that are important to tribes in New Mexico. That, along with his wide range of law experience on the state, tribal and federal levels will greatly benefit Indian Country and the Department of the Interior. While Kevin will surely be missed on the UNM campus, I have every confidence that he is a great fit for this position, and as a member of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, I will push for his swift confirmation."
Biographical information provided by the White House:
Kevin K. Washburn is Dean of the University of New Mexico School of Law, a position he has held since June 2009. Prior to that, he served as the Rosenstiel Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law from 2008 to 2009 and as an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota Law School from 2002 to 2008. From 2007 to 2008, Mr. Washburn was the Oneida Indian Nation Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School. Previously, he served as General Counsel for the National Indian Gaming Commission from 2000 to 2002, and as an Assistant United States Attorney in Albuquerque, New Mexico, from 1997 to 2000. Mr. Washburn was a trial attorney in the Indian Resources Section of the U.S. Department of Justice from 1994 to 1997. Mr. Washburn is a member of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma. He earned a B.A. from the University of Oklahoma and a J.D. from Yale Law School.
