Who is Rachel Dolezal, the Local NAACP Leader Accused of Lying About Her Race?

Rachel Dolezal, president of the Spokane, Washington, chapter of the NAACP, is under fire for apparently misrepresenting her race while heading a branch of the United States' oldest civil rights organization.
According to local news outlet CDA Press, her parents, Ruthanne and Larry Dolezal, are both white and live in the Troy area of Montana.
They say their daughter is not African-American.
So who is Dolezal?
And how did a woman of European descent from northwest Montana come to represent herself as African-American?
In a 2012 profile in local magazine Spokeane CDA, she claimed "African-American, Native American, German, Czech, Swedish, Jewish and Arabic" ancestry.
However, during an interview with a local TV state KREM, she identified as black, but not African American.
Despite this recent controversy, the NAACP has stood behind Dolezal, and issued a statement on Friday, saying she is "enduring a legal issue with her family."