Lynette Bonar attends State of Union as guest of Jill Biden

WASHINGTON — Lynette Bonar, an enrolled citizen of the Navajo Nation, joined First Lady Jill Biden and several other guests in the viewing box for the State of the Union Address on Feb. 7.

Bonar, a resident of Tuba City, Ariz., was a sergeant and former medic in the U.S. Army. She spent 19 years providing clinical care as a registered nurse and executive at the Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation, including eight years as chief executive officer.

In 2019, Dr. Biden joined Bonar to celebrate the opening of the Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation’s Specialty Care Center which was the first cancer center opened on a Native American reservation, bringing cancer treatment and other oncology services to the Navajo, Hopi, and San Juan Southern Paiute tribal members who previously had to travel great distances to receive care.

Other guests in the First Lady’s viewing box included Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff; international rock star and activist Bono from the band U2; Paul Pelosi, the husband of former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi; Ambassador of Ukraine, Oksana Markarova; and approximately 20 others. Each of these individuals were invited by the White House because they personify issues or themes to be addressed by the President in his speech, or they embody the Biden-Harris Administration’s policies at work for the American people, according to a White House statement.

Bonar was not the only Native American in attendance at the State of the Union. Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis of the Gila River Indian Community attended as a guest of Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, and newly inaugurated Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren was also in attendance as a guest of Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly.