This story was originally published by North Dakota Monitor.
Mary Steurer
North Dakota Monitor
North Dakota Ethics Commission Chair Cynthia Lindquist will step down effective June 1 to move to Denver to become the chief strategy officer for the American Indian College Fund.
Lindquist, whose background is in Indigenous health and education, was one of the original members of the five-person Ethics Commission. She was first appointed to the commission in 2019 and reappointed in 2023.
Lindquist was elected chair of the Ethics Commission in July following the death of former chair Dave Anderson in May.
“In the last six years, the Commission has made significant progress and will continue to do so in the future,” Lindquist said in an announcement from the Ethics Commission.
Lindquist is a citizen of the Spirit Lake Nation and is director of the University of North Dakota’s Tribal Initiatives and Collaborations. She previously served as president of Cankdeska Cikana Community College for over two decades.
Lindquist also was executive director of the North Dakota Indian Affairs Commission under former Gov. Ed Schafer and was a founding member of the National Indian Women’s Health Resource Center.
She holds a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of North Dakota.
Lindquist said she hopes to support the commission as much as possible in her last few months of service on the board.
“We’ve accomplished a lot, but there’s still much to do,” she said.
Lindquist’s replacement will finish out the remainder of her four-year term, which ends in August 2027. Members of the North Dakota Ethics Commission are appointed by a consensus vote of the governor, Senate majority leader and Senate minority leader.
“I’m hoping that the selection process will go smoothly,” Lindquist said.
The commission recently welcomed three new members, former North Dakota Office of Management and Budget Director Pam Sharp, attorney Mark Western and Jared Huibregtse, a project manager for an engineering firm.
The most recent appointment process took several months. Senate Majority Leader David Hogue and Senate Minority Leader Lathy Hogan supported the re-appointment of former Commissioner Murray Sagsveen, though this was opposed by Gov. Kelly Armstrong, who said he wanted a “reset” of the commission’s culture. The commission had been publicly at odds with the executive branch over the scope of the board’s authority. Sagsveen eventually withdrew his name from consideration.
The Ethics Commission was created in 2018 through a constitutional amendment approved by North Dakota voters. Its job is to promote ethical behavior in the areas of elections, transparency, lobbying and corruption.
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