Outstanding Alumni - 2008
Dr. Leah Carpenter
Bemidji State University Graduate 1985
Dr. Leah Carpenter graduated cum laude from Bemidji State with degrees in political science and American Indian studies. She currently serves as the president of Leech Lake Tribal College (LLTC) in Cass Lake, Minnesota, where she guided the college through full academic accreditation for its associate degree programs. She previously served at the college as dean of instruction, interim president and acting president. Prior to her tenure at LLTC, she held several positions at the University of Arizona. Dr. Carpenter earned a law degree from the University of Wisconsin School of Law in 1989, and a Ph.D. in American Indian Studies from the University of Arizona in 2008. She has served as a prosecutor for the Leech Lake Tribal Court, was executive director and staff attorney for Anishinabe Legal Services, director of the White Earth Constitutional Reform Project and was a clerk for the Hennepin County (MN) District Court. Dr. Carpenter has served on several boards and committees in the legal arena, on the board of the Northwoods Coalition of Battered Women and was a member of the Bemidji State University Indian Alumni Association. Dr. Carpenter is an enrolled member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe ? White Earth Band. She has two children, Ken Cloud and Terra Greenleaf, and makes her home in Bemidji.