The Indian Health Service will "flourish" with Yvette Roubideaux as director, a family friend from South Dakota said.

"She cares for her people and cares for how horribly things have gone wrong for IHS," Rose Kern told The Rapid City Journal. "I think she will do fantastically. Under her tutelage, I think IHS will flourish."

Roubideaux is a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe . Her father is the late Ramon Roubideaux, who was the first Indian attorney to practice law in South Dakota. She lives with her mother in Tucson, Arizona, the paper said.

The Senate Indian Affairs Committee has not announced a confirmation hearing for Roubideaux.

Get the Story:
Obama tabs R.C. Stevens grad as next IHS director (The Rapid City Journal 3/26)

White House Announcement:
President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts (March 23, 2009)

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