Hello! Melanee Stevens is the Program Manager for the Chehalis Native Connection SAMHSA Grant with the Behavioral Health Department at the Confederate Tribes of the Chehalis Tribe, in Oakville, Washington. Currently, Melanee’s job focus is working with the Suicide Prevention and helping the community understand what they can do to help. Melanee Stevens also teaches traditional plant knowledge, gathering and uses for the plants to the tribal members and the community. The goal of this grant is to bring activities to the community that will bring families together and the use of traditional plants in their everyday life, as well as build self-esteem, knowledge, and alternative activities.
Melanee Stevens background is in education. She has a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction with a dual minor in Early Childhood Education and Leadership. Melanee has been a teacher in the regular classroom and the non-traditional classroom for many years. In Alaska, Melanee Stevens was the program a manger with the Qutekcak Native Tribe, a coach with the Native Youth Olympic and World Eskimo Indian Olympic teams, taught the indigenous games of the north to youth from first grade to high school. Melanee Stevens also worked with the local Dance and Drum group that was made up of members from the Aleut, Alutiiq, Yupik, Inupiaq, Athabascan, Tlingit, and Tsimshian people.
Melanee Stevens also worked with the American Indian Science, Engineering Society in Colorado. There she presented at their National Conference, helped students apply for scholarships, and brought Robotics and Science lessons to Native communities.
Throughout my Melanee Stevens careers she has worn many hats from teacher to program manager to board member and educational advocate. Melanee’s most important job has been a mother and grandmother.
Melanee Stevens was born and raised in Maine, then moved to Alaska on the south-central peninsula. Melanee traveled the ALCAN (Alaska Canadian Highway) twice to Washington, lived in Colorado for a spell and finally came back to Washington to settle down with my daughter and grandson. Melanee has always had a love of working with children and plants and now has the opportunity to combines these loves in her current job.
“Finding A Cause Bigger Than Self 2024”– melanee.stevens@gmail.com, www.linkedin.com/in/stevensmelanee , https://www.chehalistribe.org/departments/suicide-prevention-awareness/