Alcorn-Windy Boy to head Rocky Boy Health Clinic

Jessica Alcorn-Windy-Boy has been chosen by the Board of Directors of the Rocky Boy Health Board to lead the reservation’s health clinic.

The appointment was announced in a statement released Monday by Beau Mitchell, chair of the health board and a member of the Chippewa Cree Business Committee.

“Jessica has a track record of strong leadership at the local, state and federal level,” Mitchell said in the statement.

He said Alcorn-Windy Boy was the unanimous choice of the tribe’s seven-member health board.

Mitchell said Alcorn-Windy Boy’s experience in health care, management and public policy make her “uniquely qualified” to head the clinic, which is responsible for meeting the health care needs to members of the Chippewa Cree.

Alcorn-Windy Boy’s hire comes after Gov. Steve Bullock named Mary Lynne Billy-Old Coyote, the clinic’s current CEO, Friday to head the state’s newly established Office of Indian American Health.

Bullock signed an executive order last June creating the office.

Through working with tribal leaders and health care professionals, Billy-Old Coyote will spearhead efforts to determine why the average lifespan of American Indians is 20 years less than that of the average non-Indian.

Alcorn-Windy Boy lives at Rocky Boy and is a tribal member at the Fort Belknap Indian Community.

She has been director of the Bio-Energy Center at Montana State University-Northern. She is the wife of Alvin Windy Boy Sr., a former member of both the Rocky Boy Health Board and the Chippewa Cree Business Committee, and is the sister-in-law of state Sen. Jonathan Windy Boy, D-Box Elder.

“I am honored, and I’m grateful to the board and the Chippewa Cree Tribe for the opportunity to lead this important tribal health care organization and (team of) dedicated and talented professionals,” Alcorn-Windy Boy said in a statement.

Alcorn-Windy Boy said she looks forward to working with both the Health Board and health clinic employees.

She will officially start work at the clinic April 11.

Information provided by the clinic said Alcorn-Windy Boy grew up on Fort Belknap and holds both a bachelor’s degree in political science-comparative governments from Brigham Young University-Hawaii and a master’s in public administration from Baruch College of the City University of New York.

Alcorn-Windy Boy was selected as a National Urban Fellow in 2002. She then worked for the Council of Energy Resource Tribes as Director of Policy and Intergovernmental Affairs at the organization’s Washington, D.C., office. She also served a member of the White House Task Force on Energy Project Streamlining under President George W. Bush.

Alcorn-Windy Boy also serves on the Bullhook Community Health Center, where she has been chair of the board of directors for the last two years.