Yvette Roubideaux

Yvette Roubideaux (born 1963 ) is an American doctor and public health administrator. She is a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe of South Dakota.

In May 2009, Roubideaux was confirmed as the Director of the Indian Health Service (IHS), an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services. She was the first woman to be appointed as Director of IHS, the principal federal health care advocate and provider for American Indians and Alaska Natives. At the University of Arizona and in previous IHS clinical positions, Roubideaux specialized in research in diabetes and its prevention among American Indian and Alaska Native populations.

In 2017, Roubideaux was named Director of the National Congress of American Indians Policy Research Center.

Early life and education Roubideaux grew up in western South Dakota, born into a family of the Rosebud Indian Reservation. She graduated in 1981 from Stevens High School in Rapid City, South Dakota.

After earning her undergraduate degree at Harvard University, Roubideaux entered Harvard Medical School, where she received her medical degree in 1989.

Career Roubideaux worked in clinical practice for IHS for three years as a clinical director and medical officer at the San Carlos Service Unit on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona. She worked for one year as a medical officer at the Hu Hu Kam Memorial Indian Hospital on the Gila River Indian Reservation in Arizona.

Roubideaux shifted her focus to public health and returned to graduate school. To work in issues of research and policy, she entered academic medicine. She served as assistant professor of family and community medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine and the College of Public Health.

Associations and writing Roubideaux is a past president of the Association of American Indian Physicians and co-editor of the American Public Health Association's book Promises to Keep: Public Health Policy for American Indians and Alaska Natives in the 21st Century (2001). She has authored several monographs and peer-reviewed publications on American Indian/Alaska Native health issues, research, and policy.

Honors 2004, Indian Physician of the Year Award from the Association of American Indian Physicians. 2008, Addison B. Scoville Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service, American Diabetes Association.