A member of the Coeur D'Alene Tribe of Idaho, Dr. Ignace was formerly the Chief of Internal Medicine, Navajo Service Unit, at the Gallup Indian Medical Center (GIMC) in Gallup, New Mexico. He is a public health service civil servant in the Department of Health and Human Services, Indian Health Service. A long-standing member of the Association of American Indian Physicians (AAIP), he served on their executive board from 2000 to 2003 and again from 2007 to 2008. He is also the principal clinical investigator for GIMC's Chronic Care Initiative. This is a collaborative effort between The Institute of Health Care Improvement and the Indian Health Service to develop and implement a chronic care model that is designed to improve health care management and promote disease prevention for all Native Americans.
Dr. Ignace received his medical degree from the University of Minnesota School of Medicine in 1996 and completed his Internal Medicine residency at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee in 1999.