Rick Getchell

Background

About Rick Getchell

As a former elected Tribal Chief for the Aroostook Band of Micmacs of northern Maine, I have had the opportunity to work with numerous tribes, state and federal agencies and governments in areas such as health services, environmental protection, education, social needs and cultural preservation. In 1996, I ran in the election and became one of the youngest tribal chiefs in United States history. I was later elected a second term as Chief and have served my tribe in various other positions since the early 1990's. I have worked as the Head Start Director of Little Feathers Head Start, which I played a significant role in the establishment of a school for the youngest generation of the tribe. During my tenure as the Head Start Director, I established the Native curriculum for the school. My experience as a tribal leader led me to serve on the National Indian Head Start Directors Association, specializing in Program Governance. More recently, I took part in a course in archaeology through the University of Maine at Presque Isle with Professor David Putnam, who works closely with indigenous peoples, particularly the Native American Tribes of Maine and First nations of Canada. I worked with various scientists, archaeologists, and anthropologists to develop best practices for identifying and reconstructing submerged Paleo landscapes. This work was performed through the University of Rhode Island, Narragansett Indian Tribal Historic Preservation Office, BOEM, and the Coastal Resources Management Council. I served as a Northeast Regional Planning Body (RPB) Co-Lead for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), marking history once again as the first Native American to ever hold the position. The Northeast Regional Ocean Plan won the 2017 Peter Benchley Ocean Award for Excellence in Solutions and will be critical to ocean planning for years to come.