Blue Mountain Associates Team Members
Dr. Virginia Sutter (seated right)
During the years of the Food Dignity research project, Dr. Virginia J. Sutter, as founder and director of Blue Mountain Associates, served as the action research project's community organizer. Dr. Sutter is an enrolled Northern Arapaho from the Wind River Indian Reservation in Fremont County, Wyoming. Her education includes an Associates (Science), Bachelors (Sociology/ Psychology), Masters (Social Work), and Doctorate (Public and Health Administration). Dr. Sutter has over 25 years’ experience in working with and for Native American tribal organizations on a national level.
Mr. James E. Sutter (seated left),
is an enrolled Northern Arapaho from the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming. Mr. Sutter graduated from Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA in June 1999, with a BA in Health and Human Services. Since graduation he has worked for the Muckleshoot Tribe in Auburn, Washington, his own Northern Arapaho Tribe in Wyoming, a Native owned software company in Oklahoma, the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California in Sacramento, California, and served as the Acting Director for the Northern Arapaho Nation Department of Social Services at Arapahoe, Wyoming. Mr. Sutter has been involved in several additional business enterprises over the past few years including Motivational Training, Native Arts and AOD consulting. His goal is to continue to work with and assist Indian people through whatever programs are available in their particular area of Indian Country. The pursuit of this goal led him to accept an executive position with Blue Mountain Associates, Inc. Board of Directors, a position he has actively held since 2003. In 2010 Mr. Sutter was appointed President of Blue Mountain Lodge, an extensive out-patient alcohol/drug program located at Ft. Washakie, Wyoming.
My name is Etheleen Potter. I worked for the Northern Arapaho Diabetes Awareness Program for 10 years, then with the Food Dignity project to implement healthier nutrition for community members, and especially the diabetics. The need to have the community grow their own food is a necessity to avoid pesticides and chemicals as much as possible and provide fresh vegetables from out of their own gardens. Also to teach the children about a better diet. Since the end of the Food Dignity project, I have served on the NIH-funded Growing Resilience Project in charge of Northern Arapaho health coordinator and overall project gardening coordinator.