ng from Northern Arizona University. "I see my job as head of a long-term economic-development project," said Clark, who in July was promoted from internal audit director for Cliff Castle. The casino, the state's 10th-largest based on number of slot machines, is near Camp Verde, 100 miles north of Phoenix. "I saw the financial opportunity for the nation," said Clark, whose mother also is a Yavapai-Apache Nation member and whose father belongs to the San Carlos Apache Tribe. Like most tribal casinos, Cliff Castle, which opened in 1995, has channeled money to state and community services as well as to tribal businesses. The Yavapai-Apaches run a lodge and conference center, a gas station, a recreational-vehicle park, a sand-and-gravel company and other enterprises. They also have helped some small gaming tribes in California obtain financing to build their own casinos. Cliff Castle has just launched a five-year expansion that includes plans for a "family-friendly" section of its center to include a 40-lane bowling alley, an auditorium for live entertainment and a food court that will be open to all ages. Building a community Unlike some casinos on reservations in Arizona, which are in rooms that resemble big-box stores or in temporary tentlike structures, Cliff Castle has a solid, earthy atmosphere. Rock walls and carpet in harvest-red and earth-tone shades surround the casino's 656 slot machines, 10 blackjack tables and eight poker tables. Clark spends long hours on the job. On Monday, for instance, she was in meetings until midnight. A typical day for her involves frequent checks with staffers running the various parts of the casino operations, including gaming machines, restaurant kitchens and the casino's 26,000-member players club. Evenings often are filled with community meetings. Clark said one of her priorities is a Cliff Castle mentoring program she hopes will draw more Yavapai-Apache women and men "into the family business, if you will." Octaviana Trujillo is a professor and chairwoman of Northern Arizona University's Applied Indigenous Studies Department. She said casinos are one avenue to allow students to become leaders in their own communities. "Most of our students are women, and they want to go back to their own communities and build them," Trujillo said. "One plus is that casinos tend to be new operations where everyone has the same opportunity to be trained. "So if someone comes in as a young person, they would have a lot of opportunities to develop skills that would lead to a career in management." Elizabeth Archuleta is an assistant professor in women and gender studies at Arizona State University. She said, "Women who have the business acumen to run a casino have found a good career path. "Casinos bring in revenue used to build a self-sustaining infrastructure . . . if women can successfully manage a casino and generate more revenue, they help their community." Gaming opportunities Industry observers estimate that 25 percent of tribal casino managers are female, although exact numbers are hard to come by. The National Indian Gaming Association in Washington, D.C., for instance, does not track whether women or men run member casinos. "I didn't see it as a man's world," said Beth Amoroso, who started working in casinos in the 1980s in Atlantic City, N.J., and now is human-resources director at Harrah's Ak-Chin Casino, outside Maricopa. "I didn't recognize barriers, but opportunities. If I've worked with folks who were surprised the boss was a woman, I wasn't aware of it." Peter Mead is publisher of Casino Enterprise Management, a trade publication that sponsors an annual convention and awards ceremony called Great Women of Gaming. He said he is unaware of any databases that would show how many women run casinos and may start one himself because of the high level of interest. Clark is among nominees for this year's Great Women of Gaming, five of which will be honored as "proven leaders" and five for being "rising stars" on April 7. "I can tell you that tribal-gaming operations proportionally have a greater number of female general managers than do their commercial gaming counterparts," Mead said. Dianna Tarbell, general manager of the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino near Hogansburg, N.Y., was one of last year's Great Women of Gaming winners. Tarbell, who said 50 percent of the managers at her casino are women, added that many women have the traits she looks for in a manager: openness to change and innovation. "The technology is changing rapidly, and you can't do the same things over and over," she said. "Managers have to be ready to be open to new ideas. They have to listen to their guests and to front-line workers who hear from the guests." Tarbell said one way she keeps on top of change is by keeping her desk near the casino floor. She came upon the idea by accident - literally - when she broke her leg and needed to sit closer to her staff. The location worked so well that Tarbell never moved back. Clark did something similar during her first few weeks as general manager. She spent time on the casino floor talking to workers and, when paychecks arrived, she was there to introduce herself and hand them out."My predecessor never went out of his office," Clark said. "I wanted them to see me in a different light. I wanted them to see the human side of me."
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