Living on the Pacific Coast of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, Tia Allen (MS ‘21) has found a way to combine her role as a tribal member of the Quinault Indian Nation with her work for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Whether monitoring suspended particulates on the reservation or writing grants for air purification equipment, her work as the Air Quality Program Coordinator contributes directly to the well being of her community.
One thing that Tia has learned along the way is how to make connections with members of tribal communities, who sometimes find government forms and expectations a challenge. “You can’t just tell them what you need from them,” she says. “You have to create a relationship with them.”
Tia has also been reaching out to help prepare tribal members for the process of applying for U.S. government positions. Earlier this year, she participated in a hiring webinar for students and alumni of Tribal Colleges and Native Serving Institutions, and she hopes to find opportunities to provide similar preparation for tribal members attending Prescott College. Most recently Tia has begun teaching courses at a local community college through Native Pathways, a reservation-based program based at the Evergreen State College designed to encourage “life-long indigenous scholarship.”
This is the latest step in a journey that began on the shores of Lake Quinault and the old growth forests near Tia’s home. She graduated from the Northwest Indian College, and then earned a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science from Evergreen State College before enrolling in Prescott College’s online Master of Science in Environmental Studies program. Here she designed her own concentration: Tribal Community Development.
From her work as a salmon hatchery intern through years of increasingly challenging positions, Tia has developed an extraordinary set of conservation skills and demonstrated a passion for building partnerships. During her two years in Prescott College’s MSES program, Tia became a wife and mother, an EPA tribal coordinator, and an American Indian/Alaskan Native Employee Program Manager.
At Prescott College, Tia engaged in foundational studies such as Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Wisdom, Food Systems, Land Use Planning and Policy, and Energy and the Environment. She applied her coursework directly to her community’s current resource management issues through projects that integrated theoretical concepts and practices with traditional knowledge and wisdom.
“My education at Prescott College really did prepare me for my work at the EPA,” she says. She was often the only tribal member in her courses, so “speaking about my culture and who I am, helping educate others,” was valuable experience for communicating with colleagues at the federal agency.
Tia has spent the last six years working with tribal communities from Washington to Alaska. With expertise in federal, state, tribal, and local regulatory issues, environmental compliance audits, organizational planning and management, communications, and grant writing, Tia has been an asset to her employers and their tribal partners, as well as to her own community. If she has her way, soon there will be plenty of other tribal members finding ways to build community resilience and restore environmental health through the EPA and other agencies.
Original source can be found here.
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