On This Episode Of The Public Health Epidemiology Conversations (PHEC) Podcast
The Tribal Epidemiology Centers are doing great work for Native Americans. Today’s guest, Weather Potdevin, is lending her hand to the cause as the Senior Director of Community Health Services at America’s largest tribal health organization, the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC), which is one of the twelve Tribal Epidemiology Centers nationwide. We hear about Weather’s background and her journey through ANTHC, before she explains how she became interested in public health. She also discusses the projects she is currently involved in across departments at ANTHC. Weather discusses how her previous experiences have helped her in her current role, the population she serves, and the common problems she encounters. Weather breaks down the meaning of tribal sovereignty in a way that many will find easy to understand. Finally, our guest talks about the importance of epidemiology in her line of work, and why evaluation programs are an everyday essential.
Meet Weather Potdevin
Weather Potdevin currently works at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC), a nonprofit Tribal health organization designed to meet the unique health needs of Alaska Native and American Indian people living in Alaska. The Consortium is the largest, most comprehensive Tribal health organization in the United States. Weather currently serves as Senior Director of Community Health Services (CHS), the ANTHC division focused on public health programs and services and home to ANTHC’s three health aide training centers: Behavioral, Dental, and Community Health Aides.
Weather is an experienced program evaluator and worked as a consultant for nearly 10 years before she joined ANTHC. Prior to Senior Director, she served as CHS Operations Manager, providing leadership and programmatic, operational and financial support to departments, and also worked in the Alaska Native Epidemiology Center, managing programs focused on building Tribal public health infrastructure within Alaska.
Weather is Koyukon Athabascan with family from Interior Alaska. She holds a Master’s from Michigan State University and a Bachelor’s from Colby College.
Listen To This Episode Of The Public Health Epidemiology Conversations (PHEC) Podcast
Conversation Highlights
A warm introduction to today’s guest, Senior Director of Community Health Services at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC), Weather Potdevin.
Weather’s background and a quick look at her ANTHC journey.
When she first became interested in a career in public health.
The projects that she’s currently working on and the various departments at ANTHC.
Our guest explains tribal sovereignty.
Why Weather moved from evaluations to her current title at ANTHC.
How her previous roles have prepared her for where she is now.
The population that she serves and the common problems that she sees among them.
Epidemiology’s importance in Weather’s work and community.
Why evaluation programs matter in the work of ANTHC.
“When we have our top health priorities, sometimes our solutions or programs that we have towards them will be out of the box [and] different.” — Weather Potdevin
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