Josephine Waconda (née Trujillo; February 5, 1935 – January 1, 2013) was an American nurse and an administrator of the Indian Health Service.

She worked in public and private hospitals until 1975, when she was chosen to participate in a federal nurse practitioner program.

Her position made her an Assistant Surgeon General of the United States and a one-star flag officer with the rank of rear admiral in the PHSCC.

Waconda founded the first regional treatment programs in the Indian Health Service to treat diabetics and substance abuse, among many other initiatives.

[3][6] Miguel was a teacher and social worker, who served in the Marines between 1942 and 1945, and challenged his inability to vote in because he lived on a reservation, which the state of New Mexico prohibited.

[7] He won a landmark federal decision in 1948, which struck down as unconstitutional, the part of the New Mexico Constitution that forbade Native people living on reservations from voting.

[13] Completing her schooling in January 1976,[14] she became the first Indigenous woman to graduate as a certified nurse practitioner (CNP) from the University of New Mexico.

She secured accreditation from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations for medicaid contracts for the first regional treatment center of the Indian Health Service and created a Women's Health Task Force to coordinate care standards for all facilities the national program.

[20] Waconda retired in 1997, and she and her husband operated a 70-acre cattle ranch near the Pueblo of Isleta, in Corona, New Mexico.

[1] Her son, John Waconda became the first Native American Partnerships Program director of The Nature Conservancy in 2021.