Speakers
Ada Bends
Ada L. Bends, Tobacco Coordinator-Good Health & Wellness in Indian Country GHWIC Program-Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council RMTLC. I am a member of the Apsaalooke (Crow) Tribal Nation of Montana and I am bilingual and bicultural and grew up on my Native Crow lands. I have been actively involved in our traditional Indigenous tobacco all of my life. To share the knowledge, to educate in both worlds of the Native and non Native, to empower, engage and support provides the opportunity everyday to make a difference in the lives of the people we serve. “Keep Tobacco Sacred”
Sonya Bigleggins
Sonya is an enrolled member of the Fort Peck Assiniboine & Sioux Nation and is a Program Director at Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council working under the Good Health & Wellness in Indian Country project. Sonya works with a team to provide guidance and assistance to tribal partners working towards public health policy development on tribal and regional levels, as well as managing contracts and program development. This experience gives Sonya the opportunity to network and help strengthen tribal partnership and collaboration.
As a trained and qualified public health professional from the federally recognized tribe of the Fort Peck Assiniboine & Sioux Tribal Nations, Sonya has personally dedicated her professional life to fulfilling treaty obligations, delivery of cultural adapted services, and advancing health care sovereignty through her work. Sonya’s interests include staying abreast of tribal history and current events and maintaining healthy activities to improve personal health and growth.
Megan Boelter
Megan Boelter is a public health law attorney with 18+ years as a tobacco control policy analyst and educator, both in the U.S. and abroad, including advocacy roles in Saudi Arabia and Australia. She currently serves as the Western Region Director for the Preventing Tobacco Addiction Foundation / Tobacco 21, providing legal and technical expertise with a focus on the tobacco retail environment. Her work with PTAF includes supporting evidence-based tobacco control measures that limit youth access to tobacco and those that reduce tobacco-related health disparities in vulnerable communities.
Dr. Michael Chaiton
Dr. Michael Chaiton is a senior scientist at CAMH's Institute for Mental Health Policy Research, director of research at the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit and associate professor affiliated with the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Institute for Medical Sciences, at University of Toronto. He has a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Toronto and is co-director of the Collaborative Specialization on Addiction Studies. His work includes understanding the impact of policy on population level influences of mental health and substance use and the development of co-morbidities, particularly among youth and young adults.
Mike Jetty
Mike Jetty is an enrolled member of the Spirit Lake Dakota Nation and a Turtle Mountain Chippewa descendant. Mike is currently working at the Montana Office of Public Instruction as an Indian Education Specialist.
Mike has been working with Indian Education issues for the past 32 years and has teaching experience at both the K-12 and University levels. He has a B.S. in History Education, a Master’s in School Administration, and an Education Specialist Degree. Please contact Mike if you are looking for ideas and resources to support your Indian Education for All instructional efforts. In addition to his work with K-12 education, he is an active member of the American Indian and Minority Achievement Council for the Montana University System.
Dr. Brian King
Dr. Brian King was appointed Director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) in July 2022. In this position, Dr. King is responsible for assuring that CTP accomplishes its public health goals and for operationalizing the Center’s vision and mission as it implements the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.
Dr. King has worked for nearly two decades to provide sound scientific evidence to inform tobacco control policy and to effectively communicate this information to key stakeholders, including decision makers, the media, and the general public. Prior to joining FDA, he served as the Deputy Director for Research Translation in CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health, and more recently as the Executive Editor of CDC’s Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report Series. He has authored more than 200 scientific journal articles related to tobacco prevention and control, served as Senior Associate Editor for multiple U.S. Surgeon General’s Reports on tobacco, and was lead author of CDC’s 2014 evidence-based guide, “Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs.”
Carin McClain
Carin is the health coach for the Tobacco Prevention and Cessation program at Lewis and Clark Public Health (LCPH) in Helena, Montana. She is particularly interested in enforcing and educating about the Clean Indoor Air Act. Before her current role, she served as the COVID-19 vaccine coordinator at LCPH, where she organized and ran community clinics, working with a team to get thousands of county residents vaccinated. In addition to her work in public health, Carin has lobbied for various causes on the state and national level, with most of her work centered on increasing access to financial services, particularly for low-income families.
Charlie Moses
Charlie Moses is the Regional Advocacy Manager for Parents Against Vaping as well as the Vapes Are Trash socio-environmental Campaign Manager and the Coalition Workgroup Coordinator for Washington Breathes. With over ten years of experience in leadership and community-based efforts, they work to combat youth substance use at the micro, meso, and macro levels – carrying out advocacy, policy work, education, outreach, and systems and environmental change. Charlie holds a master’s in Comparative Politics with an emphasis on social movements and they are currently pursuing their PhD in Health Anthropology at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Their research focuses on community interventions for sexual and gender minority youth substance use.
Charleena Penama
Charleena Penama - Charleena Penama is a member of the Salish Tribe from Montana. She is the owner of Red Hawk Design LLC and lives in Missoula Montana. Charleena has been a consultant for the Montana Tobacco Use Prevention Program for 25 years. She provides the following services for Montana’s 8 Tribal Nations and 2 Indian urban centers: cultural liaison, technical assistance, group facilitation, training, youth leadership summits and on-site services. Charleena is a certified Gathering of Nations trainer and provides these services at youth summits. Charleena has been a consultant for Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders for 15 years as the SME with commercial tobacco prevention and sacred tobacco education. Charleena is certified trainer for Basic Tobacco Intervention for Native Communities through the University of Arizona. She has 10 years’ experience in commercial tobacco cessation and was certified through the Mayo Clinic as a tobacco cessation specialist. She has provided individual cessation and group cessation. Charleena has also designed alternative quit kits with essential oils and herbs. In addition, she grows the sacred tobacco plant and provides seeds and tobacco for her community. Charleena is a certified Level I & II native games instructor by the International Natives Games Society and teaches at Salish Kootenai College, Pablo Montana.
Kinsley WalksAlong
Kinsley WalksAlong (Ánováóó'o – Beautiful Girl) grew up in Lame Deer, Montana on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation. There, she became immersed in her cultural heritage and learned the art of creating beadwork, regalia, and quill work from her grandmothers. As an adult, she continuously seeks ways to advocate for Indigenous People. For instance, she strives to revive customs as the Traditional Cheyenne Quill Work Instructor at Chief Dull Knife College. She was also recently honored by hosting the Northern Cheyenne table at the Mayor’s World Languages Dinner in Billings, Montana.
Kinsley’s passion for indigenous values with her vigor for community empowerment when she became the Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council Communications Health Specialist in 2022. In this role, she is a champion of tobacco-free living, which she promotes through Good Medicine Keepers.
Kinsley is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in communications from Montana State University Billings. She holds an associate degree from Chief Dull Knife College and a Basic Tobacco Intervention Skills Certification for Native Communities through the University of Arizona HealthCare Partnership.
Kinsley finds happiness in spending time with her family and two children, traveling to powwows, and participating in handgames throughout Indian Country.
Megan Whittet, M.P.H.
Ms. Whittet is the Health Systems Change Program Manager at National Jewish Health. She has 19 years of public health experience and has managed various health systems change initiatives to further commercial tobacco control treatment within healthcare settings. Ms. Whittet earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Public Health and Drug and Alcohol Counseling Studies from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and her Master of Public Health degree in Health Behavior and Health Education from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
Additional Speakers
Montana Representative Marvin Weatherwax
Montana Senator Willis Curdy