[3] Joyce Conseen Dugan was born in Western North Carolina to a Cherokee mother, who worked as a maid, and a white father from Tennessee.
After first working as a teacher's aide, Dugan started her teaching career in the Cherokee Central Schools after earning her undergraduate degree.
[1] This system, based in Cherokee, North Carolina, provides education to children at Qualla Boundary through schools ranging from pre-school through K-12.
After leaving office, Dugan was hired by Harrah's Cherokee to develop a transition program to equip the tribe to be able to take over the casino business.
"[1] The latter group has been working with the EBCI to develop the Nikwasi Trail, to acquire sacred sites of tribal mounds and towns along the Little Tennessee River.
In 2020 Mainspring Conservation Trust acquired land holding the Watauga Mound and part of the ancient town; it will preserve it for the EBCI.