Associate Dean for Inclusive Excellence; Charles M. Brewer Professor of Trial Advocacy; Faculty Director, Indian Legal Program; Director, Indian Legal Clinic, ASU Law
Patty Ferguson-Bohnee has substantial experience in Indian law, election law and policy matters, voting rights, and status clarification of tribes. She is a clinical professor of law, the faculty director of the Indian Legal Program and the director of the Indian Legal Clinic at ASU.
Professor Ferguson-Bohnee has testified before the United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and the Louisiana State Legislature regarding tribal recognition, and has successfully assisted four Louisiana tribes in obtaining state recognition. Professor Ferguson-Bohnee has represented tribal clients in administrative, state, federal, and tribal courts, as well as before state and local governing bodies and proposed revisions to the Real Estate Disclosure Reports to include tribal provisions. She has assisted in complex voting rights litigation on behalf of tribes, and she has drafted state legislative and congressional testimony on behalf of tribes with respect to voting rights’ issues.
Before joining ASU in 2007, Professor Ferguson-Bohnee clerked for Judge Betty Binns Fletcher of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and was an associate in the Indian Law and Tribal Relations Practice Group at Sacks Tierney P.A. in Phoenix. As a Fulbright Scholar to France, she researched French colonial relations with Louisiana Indians in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Professor Ferguson-Bohnee, a member of the Pointe-au-Chien Indian tribe, serves as the Native Vote Election Protection Coordinator for the State of Arizona.
Partner, Womble Bond Dickinson
Steve Hart is a nationally recognized Indian and gaming law lawyer representing tribes and tribal gaming commissions throughout the western United States. He provides insight and strategic advice on issues related to tribal-state compact negotiations, land into trust, and Indian lands determinations. Steve also practices in the area of corporate and government relations, overseeing policy, economic development, and state and federal legislative and administrative practices. He has also assisted with licensing matters, real estate and project development, intellectual property issues, financial transactions, litigation, and general business law matters. In addition, he represents corporations and other business entities in their efforts to shape and comply with government regulations, and in their business interactions with tribes and tribal entities.
Steve is actively involved with a number of tribal business associations, a published author, and frequent presenter at conferences and events. He received his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of law and is licensed to practice in Arizona and with Navajo Nation, Yurok Tribe, and Intertribal Court of Southern California.
Assistant Dean of Institutional Progress & Executive Director of Indian Legal Program, ASU Law
Rosier is the Assistant Dean of Institutional Progress and the Executive Director of Indian Legal Program (ILP) at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. She is an enrolled member of the Comanche Nation of Oklahoma. In this role Rosier leads the ILP’s recruitment and retention efforts and is in charge of the ILP’s development and grant work. Rosier served as Director of the ILP from 2000-2011 and returned as Executive Director in 2014. During her three-year absence from the ILP Rosier served as an Assistant General Counsel for the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation. Prior to joining ASU, she worked as a tribal prosecutor for the Gila River Indian Community. Rosier received her J.D. from the University of Utah in 1998 and a BA from Capital University in 1993.
Visiting Assistant Professor, University of New Mexico School of Law
Paul Spruhan is Visiting Assistant Professor in the Law and Indigenous Peoples Program at the University of New Mexico School of Law. Until October 2024, he was Assistant Attorney General of the Litigation Unit at the Navajo Nation Department of Justice in Window Rock, Arizona. In that capacity, he litigated civil cases in federal, Navajo Nation, and state courts on a wide range of issues, including tribal sovereignty, environmental regulation, and labor and employment. He received his A.B. in 1995 and his A.M. in 1996 from the University of Chicago. He received his J.D. in 2000 from the University of New Mexico. He and his wife, Bidtah Becker, have two children and live in Fort Defiance on the Navajo Nation
Assistant Director of the Indian Legal Program, ASU Law
Kristen Talbert is the Assistant Director of the Indian Legal Program at Arizona State University. An enrolled member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate, Kristen brings over fifteen years of experience in nonprofit leadership, case management, data collection, teaching, and program development.
Her career has focused on advancing the Indian Child Welfare Act and connecting American Indian families with resources that support long-term success. She has served as the St. Paul Urban Representative for the Indian Child Welfare Advisory Council at the Minnesota Department of Human Services and as a member of the Indian Education Advisory Council for the Arizona Department of Education. Kristen is currently a premier academic coach for the Native Forward Rising Native Graduates Program.
She earned her MBA with an emphasis in leadership and entrepreneurship from ASU’s W.P. Carey School of Business, an MA in K–12 Education with a focus on Indigenous language immersion from the University of St. Thomas, and a BA in American Indian Studies—Dakota Language Track from the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities.
In 2023, Kristen was honored with the NCAIED 40 Under 40 award for her leadership and impact in Native communities.
Senior Research Fellow, Tribal Water Policy, WATTS Kyl Center for Water Policy, Arizona State University
Cora Tso is a Senior Research Fellow at Arizona State University (ASU)’s Kyl Center for Water Policy. In this role, Cora works to research, analyze, and develop recommendations related to Arizona Tribal water policy, including analyzing Tribal Nations’ interests, needs and opportunities in regulatory and legislative processes, collaborating with Tribal leadership and representatives, government agencies, and stakeholders in connection with the Arizona Water Innovation Initiative (AWII) and building productive, lasting relationships between the Kyl Center and the Tribal water policy and legal community.
Previously, Cora has worked with governmental, private, and non-profit organizations focusing on Indian law, water law, and environmental law and policy matters. Tso is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation. She is of the Reed People clan and born for the Black Streaked Wood clan. Her maternal grandparents are of the Bitterwater clan and her paternal grandparents are of the Red House clan. She was born and raised on the Navajo reservation and is originally from Shonto, Arizona. Tso earned her Juris Doctor degree with a Certificate in Indian Law from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at ASU and her Bachelors of Science degree in Political Science and minor American Indian Studies from Barrett, the Honors College at ASU.
Harrison Tsosie
Executive Director, Office of Navajo Government Development
Bio coming soon!
Dwight Witherspoon
Attorney, Navajo Nation Department of Justice
Dwight is a member of the Navajo Nation. He is of the Ta’chiinii (Red Running into the Water) Clan. Dwight earned his Juris Doctorate from Arizona State University in May 2022, after serving 8 years on the Navajo Nation Council. This public service led to his interest in water rights. After passing the State and Navajo Bar, Dwight started working for the Navajo Nation Department of Justice in November 2022 in the Human Services Government Unit (HSGU). After working in HSGU for ten months, he transferred to the Water Rights Unit in October 2023. Dwight now leads the Navajo Nation Department of Justice Water Rights Unit since November of 2025.
