Judging Committee
Kate Spilde Contreras
Associate Professor
School of Hospitality and Tourism Management
San Diego State University
Kate Spilde Contreras is an associate professor in the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at San Diego State University, where she also serves as endowed chairwoman of the Sycuan Institute on Tribal Gaming. In her role, Contreras is responsible for managing the nation’s first four-year degree program in tribal gaming management, shaping the institute’s research agenda and providing service to tribal governments. Previously, she was the executive director for the Center for California Native Nations at the University of California at Riverside, where she oversaw the first state-level impact study of Indian gaming in California. She previously was a senior research associate at the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development. In addition to her academic positions, she was director of research for the National Indian Gaming Association (NIGA) and served as a policy analyst and writer for the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, a federal commission that produced a comprehensive study of U.S. gambling policy for Congress and President Clinton in 1999.
She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Hawaii in 1991, a Master of Arts from George Washington University in1993, a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California in Santa Cruz in 1998, and a M.B.A. in entrepreneurial management from the University of California in Riverside in 2007. She was also named a 2006 Great Woman of Gaming.
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