Sonni Tadlock



Project title: "One day you're gonna know you won't starve here": A social and cultural exploration of Coast Salish restoration of clam gardens

Degree: MPH | Program: Environmental and Occupational Health (EOH) | Project type: Practicum
Completed in: 2019 | Faculty advisor: Elaine M. Faustman

Abstract:

The purpose of the document I helped create within my practicum project was to facilitate environmental protection-related connections and advance shared action to ensure customary and traditional subsistence activities can be maintained, improved, and sustained for generations to come. My practicum was completed at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 10 Seattle Office within the Regional Administrator’s office in downtown Seattle. My site supervisor was Wenona Wilson, Senior Tribal Policy Advisor. I had met Wenona at the Tribal Environmental Health Summit in Corvallis, Oregon in the Summer of 2018. I was presenting on my work the with the Swinomish Tribe and she came up to me because we are from the same Tribe. She mentioned she worked for the EPA and I asked if she had any opportunities for a student project to fulfill my practicum requirements, and she said she had a project that my skills and experiences would align with perfectly. I chose to do practicum with EPA because I aspire to be a federal employee aligning Tribal goals with state and federal regulation. I was then hired on as short term Intern for the EPA Region 10 office.