New NAPAC Chair Darren Harvey
LAPS News:
The Los Alamos Public Schools Native American Parent Advisory Council (NAPAC) recently approved new officers for the 2022-2023 school year.
Darren Harvey has been appointed as Chair of NAPAC and Jovita Mowrer has been elected as vice chair. Karmela Martinez was reappointed as secretary. NAPAC is open to all parents and guardians of Native American students in Los Alamos public schools.
“My goals for NAPAC this year are to increase indigenous culture awareness within LAPS, continue to advise on the resources to support indigenous students with their education, and care about them as indigenous students and parents,” Harvey said. “I believe NAPAC as a whole has numerous individuals who would be willing to help shape indigenous culture awareness at LAPS.”
“As a group I think NAPAC plays a pivotal role within the school district,” he continued. “When you take into account that the land is ancestral to the pueblos, I think it’s important to inform students and parents about the history of Puebloan people and the various tribes associated with the southwest. I also believe it’s important for parents to be a part of their children’s education through committees such as NAPAC.”
Harvey is Navajo (Diné) from Dzith-Na-O-Dith-Hle “Rotating mountain”, an area south of Bloomfield. He grew up near Gallup and graduated from Rehoboth Christian School (2003). His mother is a retired elementary teacher and a first-generation college graduate, and his father retired from the BIA with nearly 40 years of service and operates the family cattle ranch.
Harvey enlisted right out of high school into the US Navy and spent nearly 8 years as an aviation electronic technician specialized in radar and communication avionic systems. Post military, he graduated with an M.S., B.S and A.S. from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU). Prior to working at Los Alamos National Laboratory, he worked at Google on the development of a proto unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), and worked for a small avionics company in Albuquerque. He is a production engineer within the Intelligence, Space and Research Division (ISR), specifically within the Space Instrument and Realization group (ISR-5).
He is co-chair of the American Indian Employee Resource Group (AIERG), a Challenge Ambassador for the Challenge Ambassador Program and assists the LANL principal investigator (PI) with the NNSA Minority Serving Institute Partnership Program (MSIPP) with two indigenous consortiums for tribal colleges and universities (TCUs). He also is the head coach for the U11 competitive girls’ soccer team for Los Alamos Youth Soccer League (LAYSL). He resides in Los Alamos and has a 9-year daughter who attends LAPS.
Newly elected NAPAC Vice Chair Jovita Mowrer
Jovita Mowrer is Dine, and is of the clan (The Water Flows Together) and born for the clan (The Red Bottom People). Mowrer teaches Algebra 2, Trigonometry and Pre-Calculus at Los Alamos High School. She is a Level III, highly qualified Mathematics teacher in the state of New Mexico, where she has been teaching for 19 years.
Mowrer is Nationally Board Certified in Mathematics and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration with an option in Engineering Management from Fort Lewis College and a Master’s Degree in Secondary Education from Western New Mexico University. Mowrer resides in Los Alamos, with her husband, Douglas Mowrer, who is the Financial Advisor at Edward Jones in Los Alamos, and four children, Katirina, Muira, Gabrielle and Rowan.
“I am very humbled and honored to serve as an officer for NAPAC,” she said. “I look forward to serving as an advocate to our 139 enrolled Native American students (K-12) and families, as well as serving as a resource to my colleagues in the district.”
Reappointed NAPAC Secretary Karmela Martinez
Martinez has been involved with NAPAC since its inaugural year. Her family lives at San Ildefonso Pueblo and she has one student attending Chamisa Elementary, one at the high school, and one who is a graduate of LAHS.
“Serving on this committee to support my kids and other students academically has been a great and rewarding experience,” Martinez said.
NAPAC, formerly known as the Los Alamos Public School District Title VI Parent Advisory Committee, was created more than 8 years ago to not only ensure compliance with the rules and regulations governing the Indian Education Act (Title VI), but also to serve as the liaison between Title VI eligible students, parents, guardians and the school district.
The council hosts events throughout the school year, including the Sash Ceremony in May for Native American LAHS seniors. In November, as part of Native American Heritage Month, NAPAC and the Los Alamos High School Native American Culture Club, with a grant from the LANL Foundation, sponsored a screening of the Emmy-nominated film, “However Wide the Sky: Places of Power” at the SALA Event Center. Sixty-five students, staff, families and community members were in attendance.
NAPAC meets monthly in the School Boardroom and via Zoom. The next meeting 6 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 12, 2023 in the School Boardroom. All LAPS Native American families and students are invited to attend.