Rose Highbear
Board President
Rose High Bear, Deg Hit’an Dine/Inupiat, was born and raised in a remote subarctic Athabascan village of McGrath on Alaska’s Kuskoquim River. Following graduation from Oregon State University, she co-founded Wisdom of the Elders, Inc. (Wisdom) in Portland, Oregon 1993. For 26 years, she dedicated herself as Executive Director to Wisdom’s mission while developing many programs and multimedia learning models dedicated to Native cultural sustainability, health and wellness, and habitat restoration. Rose retired in 2019 to rural Marion County where she founded Wisdom of the Elderberry Farm. She upholds its mission by providing an abundance of resources for Native community development in the greater Salem area and far beyond. Rose is the current Board President.