Carlyle W. Begay

Carlyle W. Begay is Navajo and was born on the Navajo Nation and he is Tó tsohnii (Big Water), born for Kinyaa’aanii (Towering House) clans. His maternal grandparents are Tl’izi lani (Many Goats clan). His paternal grandparents are also of the Tl’izi lani (Many Goats clan). Mr. Begay is a lifetime resident of Arizona and grew up on the Navajo Nation near Black Mesa and was raised under the teachings of his ancestry, instilling in him the importance of remembering the story of his people and carrying it on to his descendants.

As a former State Senator, he represented the seventh district in the Arizona State Senate, the largest Legislative State District in the continental United States. Previously he served as the Chair and a Community Advisory Board member for the Partnership for the Center for American Indian Resiliency.

For over 8 years, Mr. Begay served as Vice-President and Chief Development Officer for AIHMP, a 100 percent American Indian owned and operated company specializing in American Indian health care and policy. He has served on the Board of Directors for several organizations including the Greater Arizona Development Authority and the American Indian Chamber of Commerce of Arizona.

Mr. Begay graduated from the University of Arizona with an Associate of Science degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology and was a student in the Minority Medical Education Program at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. He also attended the Arizona International College’s Natural Sciences and Mathematics program in Tucson, Arizona; Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Winter Institute, in Baltimore, Maryland; and the Harvard School of Public Health’s Public Health Studies program in Boston, Massachusetts.