Jessica Leston

Owner/Partner | Raven Collective

Jessica Leston, MPH, has worked on a broad range of public health-related activities, where she has strived to create collaborative learning environments that bridge public health, policy, and clinical gaps to improve health and wellness in Indian Country. She has cultivated and maintained trusting relationships with Tribes, States, National Organizations, and Federal partners to ensure collaborative work to improve health and wellness for Indigenous people. Jessica has been part of amazing teams that have developed initiatives for various innovative health programs such as WERNATIVE, Indian Country ECHO, Paths (Re)Membered, and Native Health Resources.

Jessica believes strongly in learning from traditional indigenous ways of knowing to help guide, direct, and strengthen our public health systems. Her mother’s side of her family are settlers to Turtle Island, originally from Germany, Sweden, and Ireland. Her Father’s side of the family is originally from Austria, Finland, and Tsimshian from British Columbia/Southeast Alaska. She grew up in Chicago but spent many summers in Southeast Alaska with her Grandmother’s family – climbing Deer Mountain, picking huckleberries around Ward Lake and watching the salmon make their way to the Ketchikan Creek Falls. In her life and work, she honors the Alutiiq cultural value, “we are responsible for each other and ourselves.”