Longtime Educator, Commissioner to Receive Academic Degree Posthumous
Nevada Indian Commission Commissioner Lori Pasqua will be honored with a posthumous Bachelor of Arts degree by the University of Nevada-Reno at its winter commencement on Saturday. Her family will accept this honorary degree on her behalf.
“As Lori Pasqua’s colleagues and friends, our entire community wants this tireless advocate of education to own a legacy which is an enduring example to the hundreds of students she supported,” said Stacey Montooth, Executive Director of the Nevada Indian Commission. “For UNR to confer her with this degree is completely fitting, and we are grateful to the university.”
Commissioner Pasqua died from cancer on Aug. 23, 2020, just three courses shy of completing her formal education. A board member of the Nevada Indian Commission, Ms. Pasqua was a Welmelti from the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California, and a descendant of the Cui-ui Dicutta of Pyramid Lake, and descendant of the Pit-River Susanville Indian Rancheria.
She graduated in 1980 from Carson City High and earned a certificate in Social Work from Haskell Junior College in Lawrence, Kan., in 1982. In 2009, she earned an Associate of Arts degree from Western Nevada College. Ms. Pasqua continued her higher education endeavors at University of Nevada Reno, to major in sociology with a minor in addiction treatment services.
Ms. Pasqua dedicated over 30 years of service to the Washoe Tribe education program. She was
recognized for her outstanding contributions in the field of Indian Education by Senator Harry Reid in 2009 and 2010. Lori was named "Role Model of the Year" for her work with American Indian Youth Services by the Nevada Indian Commission. She was also awarded "Employee of the Year" in 2010 by the Carson Valley Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Authority and The Record-Courier. She was appointed by Governor Brian Sandoval to serve as a board member of the Nevada Indian Commission from November 2018 to August 2020.
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