Biography
Sophia is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and is also Nez Perce and Samoan. She joined the Center for Indigenous Health in September of 2023. She serves as the Family Spirit LEGO Project Director to support the vision and implementation of the LEGO Build a World of Play work. She works alongside the Family Spirit team, the LEGO international partners (Aotearoa, Australia, and Canada) and the U.S. Fellowship sites to expand home visiting and create community-designed play spaces in Indigenous communities. She hopes to support the LEGO project in becoming the blueprint for additional global expansion of Family Spirit.
Sophia has 22 years of family-centered, relationship-based work experience with Indigenous communities. Her story with the Center began 11 years ago when she became a home visitor in her community and her first day of work was training with the Family Spirit team. Since then, she has directed a home visiting program and been a behavioral health clinician in her community, trained Indigenous communities across the U.S. in Family Spirit and for the last 5 years, directed the national training and technical assistance center for Tribal MIECHV. Prior to the focus of home visiting in her career, she worked for Tribal TANF and youth development programs in Urban Indian communities on both coasts.
Sophia received her BA in Psychology from Harvard University and her MSW from Boston University. She finds joy outside of work laughing with her family at the dinner table nightly, dancing hula with her daughters and nieces weekly and attempting to read all the books she has binge purchased or been gifted in the last 3 years. She is based in Roseville, CA.