Kathleen

A.

Norton

,

MEd

My work with the Center focuses on helping our field staff members to reach their full potential.  I am keenly interested in communication and strong working teams.  I believe we all have stories to tell which lay the framework for a better future so finding the means to give voice to everyone’s aspirations and achievements is what I work towards each day.  My work with the Center began in 2002 in Whiteriver, Arizona and currently encompasses all of our field sites on the Navajo, San Carlos Apache, White Mountain Apache and Pueblo communities outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico.  I assist our staff and study participants with resource needs and help to strategize connections between neighboring sites and communities to maximize services. 

We have developed a system of recording staff member stories and statements of belief which are sent out as audio postcards to our Center colleagues.  These stories work to connect staff members at sites that span a field distance of four hundred miles regionally and the field to Baltimore.  Staff members have an opportunity to practice their public speaking skills and to share something about their work and their goals.  My decade-long work in radio makes this project a good fit for our efforts to stay connected field-wide.  I am committed to helping our staff members realize their potential starting with how they tell the story of who they are.  Feeling comfortable in telling this story about who we are empowers the participants that we work with to tell their own stories.  Connecting in this way is what we hope to accomplish.

Tribal communities are all about family.  As our world expands we find new and unique ways to stay connected with those who are in the same house or in another corner of the world.  I moved to the Navajo reservation in 1989 and have lived and worked with tribal communities since this time.  The Center for American Indian Health recognizes the unique needs of tribal communities in rural and urban settings.  Serving this organization which is fully committed to lessening health disparities among tribal communities is a perfect fit for me.  We work together to view the world as one big family.

My current work includes working towards a Masters in Business Administration.  I am interested in promoting financial literacy among our field staff members and their families as a means of feeling more secure in economically disadvantaged times.  Working to provide our staff members the tools to take control of their future benefits everyone.