Human Rights Commission Members

Current Members of the Commission

CHAIR

Ryan Rusche, Wolf Point. Ryan is a graduate of Carroll College and the University of Montana School of Law. He has served as counsel to the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Reservation, has practiced as a sole practitioner, and currently serves as the county attorney of Roosevelt County. Ryan and his wife, Rebecca, have two children. (Appointed August 2003.)

MEMBERS

Rabbi Allen Secher, Whitefish - Secher was ordained as a Reform Rabbi by Hebrew Union College in 1961 and received his doctorate in Humane Letters in 1987. As a Freedom Rider and participant in Dr. Martin Luther King’s nonviolent civil rights movement during the 1960s, Secher was jailed in Albany, Georgia, after leading a prayer service to integrate the town library. Secher founded the Jewish Catholic Dialogue Group in Chicago and has been involved in the National Conference of Christians and Jews and other interfaith groups. Secher was the communications director for the Jewish Federation of Chicago and has been a television producer and radio commentator. He’s won numerous Emmys for his documentary and children's show production. (Appointed February 2005.)
Steve Fenter, Billings - Fenter is a retired businessman from Billings. He is a graduate of Billings Senior High and the University of Montana. His previous experience with statewide Boards and Commissions includes the Montana Health Facilities Authority, the Human Services Delivery Task Force, the Montana Committee for the Humanities and the Board of Trustees for the University of Great Falls. He is currently a Board member of AAA Mountain West Corporation.

Emorie Davis-Bird, East Glacier Park - Davis Bird is currently the Planning and Development Director for the Blackfeet Tribe. Davis Bird earned a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Montana-Missoula in 1998. She was able to pursue this course of study by receiving the only Native American doctoral fellowship in Montana from the WICHE program in 1996. That degree is complimented by the Bachelors of Science degree she earned in Business Administration from Montana State University-Billings. In 2006, Emorie Davis Bird Co-Chaired the first ever "Civil Rights for Indian Country - Border Town Racism Conference." The conference was designed to educate indigenous people of Montana about civil and human rights and how racism impacts them. Ms. Davis Bird has worked in tribal governments for over 22 years.

Maria E. Beltran, Worden - Currently, Beltran is the managing attorney of the Migrant Farm Worker Law Unit of Montana Legal Services. She started as an outreach worker in 1982 and worked up to paralegal. While employed by Legal Services, she attended Eastern Montana College and graduated with a degree in secondary education in 1986. In the fall of 1987, she attended law school in Missoula and graduated in 1990. She is a late starter. She pursued her education after her children were in high school. She lives in Worden, a town within the Huntley Project, east of Billings.