Sharon Demoski – Community Health Aide Spotlight

Talking to Sharon Demoski to get the information to write this profile about her was like being given a shot of enthusiasm and energy. Throughout our conversation, it was clear that fifteen years as a health aide, mostly in her home village of Nulato but sometimes as an itinerant, has not dimmed her passion for her work.It was not a …

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Mary Malemute – Community Health Aide Spotlight

Mary Malemute officially started as a health aide in December of 2008, but her heart had long been pushing her toward that career choice. “Even as a kid, I was interested in the health field and in helping my community, and being a health aide combined both of those desires. My father’s sister and my husband’s auntie were both health …

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Daphne Williams – Community Health Aide Spotlight

There are not that many of us who know from our youngest years what we want to do with our lives, but Daphne Williams is one of the fortunate ones. “Being a health aide was always in the back of my mind. My grandma, Pauline Peter, was one of the first-generation health aides, back before the Health Aide Program even …

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CHA Spotlight – Debra Reed Itinerant Health Aide

Debra Reed wearing green Health scrubs

By Linden Staciokas She’ll never be featured in Law & Order, but Debra Reed’s job as a health aide often requires her to become a detective.  “It’s fun to figure out what a person’s medical symptoms mean.  If they have to leave the village, I work out how to get them to town.  Arranging travel may require hours of investigation …

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CHA Spotlight: Lydia David – Tetlin Health Aide

There are a lot of ways to find your calling in life.  For Lydia David, it was motherhood that led her to a now 17 year career as a health aide.  Despite all the time that has passed, recalling the circumstances can be hard for her.  “My daughter was born prematurely.  She had medical problems and for the first two …

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CHA Spotlight: Shanice Albert – Northway Health Aide

When you see the TV coverage of how the Corona virus is overwhelming the U.S. health care system, the stories are about hospitals. Dressed in gear that looks like it was designed for space travel, the front line workers talk about how physically and emotionally exhausted they are, how they long for a return to normalcy. It is easy to …

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CHA Spotlight: Mariah Bifelt – Itinerant

By: Linden Staciokas Mariah Bifelt knew a number of health aides growing up, including her own aunt.  But she never considered being one until she moved back to her home village of Hughes.  “I was born in Fairbanks but raised in Hughes, leaving when I was an adult.  I returned in June of 2015, and the position was sitting empty, …

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CHA Spotlight – Herbie Demit

Sometimes you go looking for a job, and sometimes the job finds you.  Herbert “Herbie” Demit never had any intention of becoming a health aide.  He’d been a carpenter, a trucker, a heavy equipment operator, and a village public safety officer, but learning precise details about the body and then applying that knowledge to diagnose and treat humans had never …

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