Upcoming & Past Meetings

Please join us for the June Gathering Grounds session! We are excited to welcome a panel of direct service providers to share their knowledge and experience.

Tasha Pedersen, LCSW (Sun’aq Tribe (Sugpiaq)) currently serves as a Behavioral Health Itinerant Clinician in Kodiak Alaska and delivers tailored care to her community.

Jacquelyn Ingram, CPM, LM, IBCLC (Ninilchik Village Tribe (Aleut)) is a Hawai’i state-licensed certified professional midwife and international board-certified lactation consultant, who collaborates with other providers to provide seamless clinical care and social services to both pregnant and non-pregnant people.

We are excited to welcome our guest speaker Tatewin Means (Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota, Oglala Lakota, Inhanktonwan), Executive Director of Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation, for a presentation on Finding Liberation through Healing, Connectedness, and Identity.

Please join us for the April Gathering Grounds session! We are excited to welcome Dr. Shannon Maloney and Katsi Cook for a presentation on Restoring Indigenous Ways of Caring for Pregnancy.

Dr. Maloney (Mohawk) has focused on Indigenous maternal health as a personal passion in North America and globally. She currently leads research studies about restoring Indigenous pregnancy care, preconception counseling in family practice settings and the role of media on birth choice.

Katsi Cook (Wolf Clan Mohawk) is an Indigenous midwife and Elder of the National Council of Indigenous Midwives. Katsi’s work in environmental reproductive health has spanned many worlds and disciplines and demonstrates a lifelong career of advancing the superlatives of Indigenous knowledge.

We are excited to welcome back Andrea Medley, Research Associate at the Center for Indigenous Health, John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Andrea will be joined by members of the Indigenous Advisory Council, Lee Torres, Arlene Brown, and Pamela Hughes, who will guide us in a discussion centered around their work in support of the Tribal Principles and experiences in substance use/opioid related work.

Please join us for our February Gathering Grounds session featuring a panel discussion on Centering Culture in Practice! We will welcome three direct service providers, Larita Stevens-Anderson, Whitney Chavez, and Chad Pfeiffer to share their experiences and knowledge using culture as prevention, treatment, and recovery.

Please join us for our first session of 2024! We will welcome Miguel Flores Jr. and Dr. Felina Cordova-Marks as guest presenters. Mr. Flores is a Licensed Independent Substance Abuse Counselor and a member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe and Tohono O’odham Nation. He has a 33-year career in providing behavioral health services, Spiritual Leadership, and Traditional Medicine for The People. Dr. Felina Cordova-Marks (Hopi) is an Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona Zuckerman College of Public Health in the department of Health Promotion Sciences. She is a published author on topics such as, cancer, cardiology, informal health caregiving, mental health, health disparities, and American Indian health.

We are excited to invite our community back for six monthly sessions from January through June.

Our next session is May 2^nd at 10am PT/1pm ET. We will welcome back Andrea Medley, MPH (Haida Nation) from John Hopkins Bloomberg Institute of Public Health. This is part II of our fall session where we discuss Indigenizing Opioid Litigation Settlements: Co-creating Guidance that Centers Harm Reduction Approaches. In this session we will continue our discussion on Indigenizing Opioid Litigation Settlements to dive deeper. — register here

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Please reach out to Caelin Marum (caelind@uw.edu) with any questions!

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Healing and transforming Indigenous health governance systems requires a journey of reclamation and resilience. It is a process by which we construct our collective futures from within our traditional values, norms, and lived experiences, rather than looking to external definitions of sovereignty. During this webinar, we will introduce a new resource that guides tribes through the transformative process of strengthening self-governance through greater public health authority. The resource draws upon Indigenous models of nation building and healing to promote cultural and political sovereignty, and build legal competency. Register for the webinar and be among the first to receive the resource.

This meeting will focus on the Peer Support approach, a promising practice for Opioid Use Disorder (OUD). Attendees will leave with tools on how this approach can be implemented and incorporated in communities in order to strengthen the response to OUD. Dr. Christina Arredondo, Behavioral Health Director at El Rio Community Health Center, will provide insight into how the team at the Pascua Yaqui Tribe developed and successfully sustained a Peer Support Approach to substance use disorders in their community in Arizona.

This meeting will focus on the Integrated Health Care approach, a promising practice for Opioid Use Disorder (OUD). Attendees will leave with tools on how this approach can be implemented and incorporated in communities in order to strengthen the response to OUD. Ms. Dawn Lee, Chief Operating Officer, will provide insight into how the team at didgʷálič Wellness Center developed and successfully sustained an Integrated Health Care approach to substance use disorders in the Swinomish Tribe in Washington State.

About the Presenter

Dawn Lee is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for the didgʷálic Wellness Center.  didgʷálič is the only tribally owned outpatient treatment facility that offers fully integrated primary care, substance use counseling, medication, and social services, all under one roof, to adults with substance use and behavioral health disorders. Dawn has been working in the field of substance use disorders since 1999.  She is licensed in Washington State as a Substance Use Disorder Professional (SUDP).  She has been working in tribal communities since 2004 and has worked for the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community for the past 10 years.  

In addition to her work as a SUDP, she has developed multiple programs within the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community which has increased her staff from 3 to 90 in 10 years.  For her work at didgʷálic her team won the Portland Area Indian Health Service Leadership Award, Recognition of Excellence Award and the Indian Health Service Directors Awards.