Roundtable Discussion: Examples of Resilience in Indigenous Communities During COVID-19 Pandemic

Dr. Scarlet Soriano is a health and wellness leader, consultant, speaker and coach. She develops wellness programs across a wide range of health-related institutions, with a focus on designing Integrative medicine patient and employee clinical programs. Dr. Soriano uses a wide range of skills to support her clients in their journey of institutional transformation, starting with a process of re-envisioning foundational concepts of healthcare delivery; then moving through all aspects of design and implementation, and extending into measuring, sustaining and expanding impact of programs post-launch. Dr. Soriano is passionate about expanding access to evidence-based Integrative and wellness-based healing modalities to minorities and underserved populations.

Dr. Soriano is a founding member of the AIHM’s Black, Indigenous and People of Color Taskforce. She has recently joined the Board of the AIHM. Before launching as a wellness consultant in 2020, Dr. Soriano was Director for Group Visits at the Program for Integrative Medicine and Health Disparities at Boston Medical Center. Since 2018, she has been the Director for Wellness-Based Healthcare Transformation at Boston Medical Center. She is former Medical Director of the Tanya I Edwards, MD Center for Integrative and Lifestyle Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Soriano is the current Medical Director for the upcoming Hopespring Holistic Health Institute in Maine. Dr. Soriano has worked in settings that range from rural to urban, serving a wide range of patients and communities.

Linda Black Elk is an ethnobotanist specializing in teaching about culturally important plants and their uses as food, medicine, and materials. Linda works to build curriculum and ways of thinking that will promote and protect food sovereignty, traditional plant knowledge, and environmental quality as an extension of the fight against hydraulic fracturing and the fossil fuels industry. She has written for numerous publications, and is the author of “Watoto Unyutapi”, a field guide to edible wild plants of the Dakota people. Linda currently serves as the Food Sovereignty Coordinator at United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, North Dakota and spends her free time with her husband and three sons, who are all citizens of the Oceti Sakowin.

Lukkya Zowie Banteah-Yuselew. Zowie Dakkya:kwe deyan Yadokkya:k a:wan cha'le. Zowie Banteah-Yuselew born and raised in the Zuni Pueblo belongs to the Frog clan and a child of the Sun clan. An educator for 17 years, Zowie is passionate about her youth in her Indigenous community of Zuni, New Mexico.  Zowie has been a community advocate primarily in positive youth development as she believes all children have gifts and talents they have yet to uncover. She has taught grades 1-4, and 7th & 8th grades. Currently, Zowie teaches 3rd grade at Shiwi Ts'ana Elementary in Zuni, NM. The reason why she chose teaching was to instill how important a child's self-worth is, to have their whole being recognized and celebrated and when a child is equipped with knowledge of who they are as well as the gifts of academics; it can lead them to be strong and empowered individuals no matter where they go. Zowie wanted to teach in her community because she felt it was important to give back. Last year she partnered with another mom to start a community pantry when COVID-19 hit. This endeavor brought her and a small group of like minded individuals to serve their community as volunteers.

Kelly K. Noble is a member of the Zuni Pueblo and is of Zuni/Cherokee decent. She is a mom of 4 and grandmother of 3. She is currently the Division Director of Public Works, for the Pueblo of Zuni. Kelly is a partner of the Emergency Mobile Pantry.

Anne White Hat, Ohitikawin, is a member of the Aśke Gluwipi Tiośpaye of the Sicangu Lakota, one the Seven Council Fires of the Oćeti Śakowin, the Lakota Nation and a direct descendant of Chief Hollow Horn Bear. She is the proud mother of three, a community organizer, and founding member of the Indigenous Women’s Advisory Council of the L’eau Est La Vie -No Bayou Bridge Resistance Camp, Board Member of the Lakota Wellness Society, and member of Another Gulf Is Possible collaborative. White Hat Botanicals is her trade name featuring what she calls her ‘community determined’ botanicals and CBD remedies. She is a co-founder of Delta Rootz solidarity medicine making collective in Bvbancha aka New Orleans. She is a grant writer by trade, community organizer out of love for her people, jack of all trades by hustle and blessed to work with plants for you.