Peterson Zah, former president of the Navajo Nation, will receive an honorary degree from Arizona State University on May 12. Mr. Zah will be draped with a hand-woven leadership blanket after receiving the honorary doctorate from ASU President Michael Crow. The ceremony will be part of ASU’s spring commencement at 10 a.m. in Wells Fargo Arena. Mr. Zah was elected the first president of the Navajo Nation, the largest tribe in the U.S., in 1990. Mr. Zah has been an adviser to the ASU president on American Indian Affairs for 10 years, he has helped double the university’s Native American student population to 1,237 from 672 and increase retention to 78 per cent from 43 per cent, among the highest of any major college or university in the country, according to ASU.

Mr. Zah was born in 1937 and reared on the Navajo Reservation at remote Low Mountain, Ariz. He left his home in 1953 to attend the Phoenix Indian School, later enrolling at Phoenix Community College and finally ASU, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in education in 1963.

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Attorney Dustin C. Jones of Snell & Wilmer has been appointed by Governor Napolitano to the Governor’s African American Advisory Council, a bi-partisan commission, which advises the governor on issues affecting the African-American community, including education, employment, economic development and social services. Mr. Jones will serve on the 15-member council for 18 months. He earned his law degree from the University of Arizona in 1999, and his bachelor’s degree in political science from the UofA 1996. Snell & Wilmer is a full-service business law firm with more than 400 attorneys practicing in six offices throughout the Western United States, including Phoenix and Tucson. Its Web site is www.swlaw.com —