- Ph.D., Cross-Cultural Studies, University of Alaska Fairbanks
- M.Ed., Language & Literacy, University of Alaska Fairbanks
- B.A., Linguistics, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Beth Ginondidoy Leonard is Deg Xit’an (Athabascan) and member of the Shageluk Tribe of interior Alaska. Her parents are James Dementi and the late Reverend Jean Dementi. During the 1990s, she assisted in grant-writing and coordinating language preservation projects for Tanana Chiefs Conference, a consortium of interior Alaska Athabascan tribal governments. Beth served in several faculty positions at the University of Alaska Fairbanks including the Alaska Native Language Center, the Alaska Native Studies Department, Interior-Aleutians Campus, the School of Education and the Center for Cross-Cultural Studies/Indigenous Studies Ph.D. Program. In 2014, Beth was awarded a Fulbright U.S. Core Scholarship and spent five months at Te Kawa a Māui – School of Māori Studies at Victoria University of Wellington researching Indigenous student recruitment, retention and mentoring. From 2016-2020 Beth was a professor of Alaska Native Studies at the University of Alaska Anchorage. She is married to Michael Leonard, and they have one daughter, Samantha Quinn.
