Ms. Villareal entered the Tribal Gaming Industry 27 years ago as a summer job while attending Community College and working part-time as a CNA in a convalescent home. Her path to the position of CIO was a non-traditional path as she started this career journey in Food & Beverage. With pride she has had the opportunity to be part of the development of opening seven Casinos and three hotel expansions within the Gila River Indian Community since 1995.

In her role she oversees the Information Technology Department is comprised of the following functional areas; Infrastructure Team that supports network engineering, converged technology, systems application support, low-voltage, DAC including Audio Visual. The Cyber Security Team that is responsible for IT Compliance and Governance, Systems Administrators and Security Technicians. IT Project Management Office that coordinates all technology related initiatives and business project support.  IT Operations Team is comprised of our Help Desk support, POS Technicians, Gaming Applications Team, Contracts, Asset Management and Procurement. These teams support Gaming Operations, Security/Surveillance, Food & Beverage, Hotel Operations, Marketing Team and all other BOH/FOH for Vee Quiva Resort and Casino, Wild Horse Pass Resort and Casino, Lone Butte Casino and in production Gila River’s new property Santan Mountain Casino. The IT Department supports over 2900 employees. She also serves on the Global Gaming Women’s Membership Committee and has been nominated to serve as a member on the Tribal-ISAC Steering Committee for TribalHub.

Ms. Villareal believes in building a succession plan to ensure that the Enterprise continues the path of success for providing economic development for the Gila River Indian Community. She is Pima from the Gila River Indian Community and Hopi from the Village of Shungopovi. She is married to Anthony C. Villareal, Sr. serving his community on Council for 15 years. She has four kids, Michael, Anthony, Siana and Miah and six grandkids that are the driving force for sustaining a future for.

I am originally from Illinois, where I also went to college and received a bachelor’s degree in Computer Information Systems. After graduating, I started out my IT career working as an Network Administrator for a local construction company. In 2009, is where I stepped into the casino industry, my casino career started with Pinnacle Entertainment, where I worked at both River City Casino and Lumiere Place in St. Louis, MO. In 2016 I moved to upstate New York, to open delLago Resort and Casino, a new resort between Rochester and Syracuse. I stayed there for a couple years and realized how much I do not like the bitter cold. In 2019 I moved again to sunny, New Mexico, and have been at Isleta ever since. I really enjoy working in the casino industry and for Isleta. I am a person that has to stay busy and there seems to always be something going on and something new to learn in casino IT. I am a person that always embraces change and embarks on new challenges. In my spare time I love to travel, sit by the pool, eat good food, enjoy good company and overall just be a happy.