Mr. Mark Gilfillan
TNTCX Project Manager
Tribal Liaison
Mark Gilfillan is currently a Project Manager/Tribal Liaison for the Tribal Nations Technical Center of Expertise in Albuquerque District. Formerly, Mark served as the Tribal Liaison (TL) for Sacramento District, Corps of Engineers since 2007. He is an enrolled member of the Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska (with Iowa tribal ancestry). With the Sac and Fox, he served as the Tribal Gaming Chairman, including duties to research tribal reserved rights and treaty history, NAGPRA, cultural history, Museum, and language preservation efforts. He has delivered an extensive Economic Development Plan to the Sac and Fox and has completed a Sovereignty Plan for the tribe. He served as a Regulatory Project Manager with USACE from 2001-2013. As a TL he assists South Pacific Division, USACE-HQ, the Office of the Assistant of the Secretary of the Army, and with the Department of Defense with training programs and initiatives. Additionally, he is the TNTCX Tribal Liaison for the Army for the Carlisle Indian School disinterment actions and the return of students to families and tribes.
He started his career in 1985 with the US Department of Energy as an environmental scientist covering a wide range of contaminant migration issues. In 1996 he transitioned to a senior scientist positions in the private sector (various engineering firms) and with the state of Kansas (Brownfields and RCRA). He has a B.S. in Environmental Restoration and Waste Management from Colorado Mesa University (1997), and on May 14, 2021, he will graduate from the University of Tulsa-College of Law, with a Master of Jurisprudence in Federal Indian Law.
Mark lives in Grand Junction, Colorado with his wife and their four children. The family previously fostered two tribal children from the Sac and Fox, under provisions of the Indian Child Welfare Act. His interests include his tribal culture, language preservation, rafting, skiing, biking, camping, hiking, hunting, and fishing.