Birdie Wermy, Stephanie Soliz, Maleah Nore

Biography

Birdie Wermy, MPH, BS (Southern Cheyenne) is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, she’s also Kiowa and Pawnee. She grew up in Oregon in a town 20 minutes south of Portland. Birdie is the Behavioral Health Project Manager at the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board, where she has worked for 19 years. Birdie has been a part of several successful projects over the years and has a wealth of knowledge and experience. She’s also a part-time instructor at a local Community College, where she teaches on alcohol and substance abuse. In her free time, Birdie enjoys bead working, running and spending time with her kids.

Biography

Stephanie Soliz, MPH, is a Research Coordinator at the University of Washington School of Social Work, Indigenous Wellness Research Institute. She has worked on various research, training, and evaluation projects around mental health, substance use, and sexual health. In her free time, Stephanie enjoys spending time with her family, reading, and trying out new recipes.

 Biography

Maleah Nore, Tlingit, MPH, is a tribal public health contractor with a background in family violence prevention, suicide prevention, and strengthening tribal family systems. Maleah’s work is rooted in her experiences as a survivor of child abuse, domestic violence, suicide, and the Office of Children’s Services system in rural Alaska. She has been involved in grassroots and non-profit violence prevention efforts since she was 15 years old. She is the co-founder of BRAVE Wrangell, a grassroots domestic violence prevention and survivors’ advocacy organization serving the community of Wrangell, Alaska, for over 9 years. She has worked in child abuse prevention at the village, tribal, state, regional, and national levels. Maleah also has a passion for suicide prevention. She is a trainer in the nationally recognized suicide intervention skills trainings, QPR and ASIST. She has provided a broad range of technical assistance around suicide prevention to tribal communities across the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, and she collaborates closely with the NPAIHB’s THRIVE suicide prevention program. Maleah brings a lens of hope, connectedness, and ancestral power to everything she does.