Jessica Leston, MPH | Rick Haverkate, MPH

Jessica Leston, MPH is the Clinical Programs Director the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board (NPAIHB) where she focuses on systems and policy change. She began her public health career working at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium in 2004 and has worked in tribal health since then. She 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.”

Rick Haverkate, MPH, is an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. In 1993 he earned his MPH from the University of Hawai’i. His 32-year public health career has been focused entirely on Indigenous peoples of North America. Rick has assumed various roles, including Community Health Educator, Public Health Advisor, and Director of Public Health at the tribal, state, and national levels. He has specialized in the operational management of HIV/AIDS, Maternal and Child Health, Tobacco, Health Promotion/Disease Prevention, and Community Capacity Building. Rick currently works for the Indian Health Service as their National HIV/AIDS Program Director.