Elizabeth Diaz Rechebei

Elizabeth Diaz Rechebei, born in 1949 on Saipan, is a Northern Mariana Islander academic and education administrator counted among the first Chamorro women to complete a graduate education. From 1984 to 1987 she directed the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands' Department of Education, the first woman and the youngest person to hold that post, and she later led the Northern Mariana Islands' public school system. Beyond school administration she worked to preserve Chamorro heritage, contributing to a Chamorro-English dictionary project and helping establish the islands' first public library and the NMI Museum of History and Culture. In 2009 she received a Governor's Humanities Award for that preservation work.