Title: Institute Scholars
Location: Navajo
The best part about working with the Navajo Nation Epidemiology center (conducting BRFSS Surveys) was traveling all over the western agency and getting to talk with people of my own community. I practiced my language, learned a lot about their struggles, I saw the conditions people lived in, and my heart ached every day for my people but at the same time my love grew stronger. Thats when I decided that if I really wanted to serve my community, I needed to be able to walk in two worlds, one where I am a member of a community and the second where I am able to speak on platforms about policies backed with statistics and data.
Biography
Tyesha Ignacio is currently a Program Specialist with Tribal Tech LLC in Arlington, VA. She manages a grant portfolio of social development, economic development, native language and environmental projects. Her background primarily includes environmental work and policy advocacy, however through her research and experience she has come to find that the environment and health are intertwined in complex ways, leading her to the interest of attending her first institute through the Center for American Indian Health. Tyesha has been seeking a way to combine the two into a career and believed that this was a start.
Tyesha Ignacio received her Master of Public Administration from the University of Kansas. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies from Northern Arizona University. Tyesha is currently living and working off the reservation but feels that it is important for her growth to learn as much as possible before returning home.