Tribal Health Care 101

Doreen Nanibaa McPaul Related Seminars and Products

Doreen Nanibaa McPaul is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation. She is Kinyaa'áanii, born for Bilagáana, her maternal grandfathers are Honaghaahnii, and her paternal grandfathers are Irish. She was born and raised in Chinle, Arizona on the Navajo Reservation. She is a 1995 graduate of Princeton University and earned her Juris Doctorate in 2001 from the Arizona State University College of Law, where she also received a Certificate in Federal Indian Law and served as a staff writer for the ASU Law Journal. After law school, Ms. McPaul clerked at the Arizona Court of Appeals for the Honorable Jefferson L. Lankford (retired). She has diverse experience serving as a tribal court staff attorney, as an associate attorney at the Nordhaus Law Firm in Albuquerque, and as a visiting clinical law professor and Interim Director of the Indian Legal Clinic at ASU. Since 2008, Ms. McPaul has worked as an in-house tribal attorney for several Arizona tribes, including a 4-year appointment as the Navajo Nation Attorney General. Ms. McPaul has nearly 25 years of experience practicing Indian law, and is admitted to practice law in Arizona and New Mexico, as well as before several tribal and federal courts.

Ms. McPaul is a 2013 graduate of the State Bar’s Bar Leadership Institute and remains active in the State Bar and Indian legal community. She currently serves as the President-Elect of the State Bar of Arizona after becoming one of the first American Indians appointed to serve on the State Bar’s Board of Governors in 2018. The Supreme Court of Arizona re-appointed her to the Board in 2019 and again in 2020 and 2023. Ms. McPaul is also a founding board member and current Executive Director of the Tribal In-House Counsel Association, a national organization that provides informational networking and support measures and programming to in-house tribal attorneys and federal Indian law practitioners. She also serves on the Board to the American Indian Law Center and serves on the PLSI Judicial Clerkship Committee. Finally, Ms. McPaul serves as a Trustee for the Irish Cultural Center in Arizona.

Ms. McPaul has received several honors for her work. In 2021, she received the Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad from Ireland’s President Michael D. Higgins at a ceremony at the Áras an Uachtaráin in Dublin. She was also elected to membership in The American Law Institute in 2021. Ms. McPaul received the 2020 Alumnus of the Year Award from the National Native American Law Student Association in recognition of her work, passion, dedication to serving Indian Country, and empowering native law students to dedicate their careers to serve their tribal communities. She is also the recipient of the State Bar of Arizona Indian Law Section’s 2020 Rodney B. Lewis Award of Excellence for exemplifying the honesty, integrity, courage, grace, dignity and respect of the award’s namesake. And finally, Ms. McPaul received the 2020 Cushing Academy Leadership Award for outstanding leadership, commitment to public service, and invaluable contributions to the Navajo Nation and the legal profession.

Most importantly, Ms. McPaul is a proud military spouse and mom. She is married to SFC Mark McPaul (retired) and they have three sons, two Rez dogs, and a cat.

Elizabeth Josephine Coronado Related Seminars and Products

Elizabeth J. Coronado is an enrolled citizen of the Picayune Rancheria of the Chukchansi Indians Tribe in California. She joined Hobbs, Straus, Dean & Walker LLP in December of 2023 as an associate attorney and currently works remotely from California. She advises tribal clients on matters related to their health care operations. She has focused her career on advancing health equity of American Indian and Alaska Native people by advocating for tribal self-determination in tribal health care operations and upholding federal treaty and trust obligations.

Prior to joining the firm, she worked as the Senior Policy Advisor for the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board (NPAIHB) where she provided health policy support to the 43 tribes in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington and she previously worked as the Health and Human Services Attorney with the Lummi Nation. After law school, she worked as an attorney within the Economic and Community Development Unit of the Navajo Nation Department of Justice.

She graduated cum laude from Suffolk University Law School in 2016 where she was the President of the Native American Law Student Association. While in law school, she interned with the Office of Tribal Justice with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe.

In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her son and partner—traveling, eating new foods, and playing outside.

Education
Suffolk University Law School, J.D., cum laude, 2016
California State University, Los Angeles, B.A., 2013

Bar Admissions
Arizona
California
Washington
U.S. District Court –Western District of Washington
Lummi Tribal Court
Navajo Nation Court—inactive

Selected Publications
The Plight of New England Tribes Pursuing Federal Recognition, 4 Am. Indian L.J. 546 (2016).

Of Note
Stanford University Federal Indian Law Guest Lecture: Tribal Sovereignty and the Indian Health System (November 2023)
NPAIHB NARCH Summer Training Institute Faculty Member: Indian Health Policy (June 2022)
Washington State Bar Association Indian Law Section CLE Panelist: COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates and Tribal Nations (June 2022)
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Indian Health Service, Tribal Health Programs, and Urban Indian Program Training Lecturer (2021-2022)
PRIM&R Advancing Ethical Research Workshop Panelist: Research with American Indian & Alaska Native Tribes and Communities (December 2020)
American Bar Association Webinar: Issues Affecting Native American Communities During the COVID-19 Crisis Panelist – Alternate Care Site Planning (April 2020)

Harrison William Rice Related Seminars and Products