Hello! My name is Melanee Stevens, and I am the Project Director for the Chehalis Native Connection SAMHSA Grant with the Behavioral Health Department. Currently, my job focus is working with the Suicide Prevention Grant and teaching traditional plant knowledge, gathering and uses for the plants. The goal of the grant is to bring activities to the community that will bring families together and the use of traditional plants in their everyday life.
My background is in education. I have my Masters in Curriculum and Instruction with a dual minor in ECE and Leadership. I have been a teacher in the regular classroom and the non-traditional classroom for many years. In Alaska I was the program a manger with the Qutekcak Native Tribe, the Native Youth Olympic and World Eskimo Indian Olympic coach, taught the indigenous games of the north to youth from first grade to high school. I 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.
Throughout my career I have worn many hats have worn many hats from teacher to program manager to board member and educational advocate. My most important job has been a mother and grandmother.
Born and raised in Maine, moved to Alaska on the south-central peninsula, traveled the ALCAN twice to Washington, lived in Colorado for a spell and finally came back to Washington to settle down with my daughter and grandson.
“Building Bridges 2025 – melanee.stevens@gmail.com, www.linkedin.com/in/stevensmelanee , https://www.chehalistribe.org/departments/suicide-prevention-awareness/ “