Undersecretary Arlando Teller (via Los Angeles Blade)
Arizona state Rep. Arlando Teller, a gay Navajo man, has joined the Biden Administration as Sec. Pete Buttigieg’s deputy assistant secretary for tribal affairs for the U.S. Department of Transportation. Teller is Navajo.
Before Teller was elected to the Arizona House of Representatives in 2018 and served on the transportation committee, he worked for Caltrans, the California Department of Transportation, and then served as deputy director of the Navajo Division of Transportation.
He is a graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
“Elevating indigenous nations’ by the Biden administration only invigorates and encourages me to do more,” Teller told the Los Angeles Blade in a text message. “Representation matters.”
Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez echoed that sentiment in a press release.
“Words cannot express how proud we are of these two young Navajo professionals, who have dedicated themselves to serving our Navajo people and are now moving onto the federal level to help empower all tribal nations,” Nez said.
Teller is the second Navajo appointed to the Biden administration after Wahleah Johns, the new director of the Office of Indian Energy in the US Department of Energy.
On Feb. 1, Teller resigned his Arizona House seat, where he served with five other gay men in the state Legislature, to begin his new position.
In November, Teller contracted coronavirus and was hospitalized for several weeks. While he continues to recover, he will work from home. His mother also contracted the virus and died in December.
— David Taffet
