Already sizeable and growing, Seattle Indian Health Board’s workforce is filled not only with talent but also an array of lives, journeys, and wisdom. “Relative to Relative” is a conversation series, lowering barriers to connection through unscripted storytelling. Each installment is an invitation to weave new relationships and recognize the humans behind our healthcare.
Some people trust their gut when making big decisions; others call it listening to their intuition. Sabrina Sykes (Haida) listens to her family, especially her ancestors. You could even say one of them influenced her decision to work at Seattle Indian Health Board. (More on that later.) Whether in her hometown of Ketchikan, Alaska or in the Seattle area, it seems home and family — in the broadest sense of these words — have always grounded her.
Sabrina’s official role is to manage operations at SIHB’s Pioneer Square clinic, ensuring clinical staff have a clean, efficiently organized setting in which to work. The clinic sees a wide variety of people at its doorstep: people who stop by during their working hours, unhoused individuals, and many others. Sabrina works to make sure clinic providers have the supplies they need, and that anyone who calls in sick has a coworker covering their shift.
But just as cousins often remember each other for possessing certain traits, Sabrina’s colleagues know her best for her skill in assessing our relatives’ needs quickly and compassionately.
“Sabrina’s really good at meeting everybody where they’re at,” says Shawn Thurman (Sac & Fox, Cheyenne, Shawnee, Caddo). The nurse care manager works with her at SIHB’s Pioneer Square and International District clinics. “And it really helps, too, that she’s got such an extended family that relatives (patients) sometimes walk through the door, and she knows them by sight. That’s her family,” he adds.
“This is where our relatives come to be seen — I mean, for medicine, yeah, but also for traditional medicine or just to see a friendly face, you know?” — Shawn Thurman (Sac & Fox, Cheyenne, Shawnee, Caddo)
Speaking of family, let’s get back to Sabrina’s ancestors. About two years ago, she applied for a position at SIHB that required experience with the Epic electronic records system. No problem there: she’d already worked with Epic for four years. Sabrina also prepared for the interview thoroughly. But that process wasn’t finished until Sabrina visited her great-grandmother’s grave to find spiritual strength for that interview. “I feel like my Nana watches over me in spirit,” Sabrina explains.
A few days later, Sabrina entered SIHB’s International District building for an interview — and saw the literal writing on the wall.
A plaque honoring SIHB co-founder Adeline Skultka Garcia (Haida) hung in a prominent place in the conference room. Sabrina recognized her family crest — the Double Fin Killer Whale — on the plaque, and realized she shares that heritage with Adeline. “It’s got to be; it’s meant to be!” she thought. A few days after the interview, SIHB welcomed her to the (work) family.
“It’s the Elders and future generations: that’s who we’re doing it for, you know? That’s who’s supporting us and being there for us.” — Sabrina Sykes, SIHB Pioneer Square site manager
To Sabrina, care means supporting the wellbeing of our relatives’ spirit, mind, and bodies. She expresses her passion for the Seattle-area’s Native community by connecting people with resources they need.
Of course, not every day is sunshine, powwows and frybread; it can be difficult for her to get out of bed for work on a cold, rainy winter day. That’s when she reminds herself of what she sees as her life purpose: caring for her children and family. “If I don’t help them,” she says, “who is going to do that for them? It’s not even a question for me; it’s something that I’ll always do for them.”
In addition to her parental bond, Sabrina says she feels a “strong, close family connection” to the people at SIHB, coworkers as well as relatives. Sabrina’s favorite part of this extended family may be the members of SIHB’s Elders program. “They just hold a big giant piece of my heart,” she says fondly, because they remind her of the women in her family who raised her.
By the way: Remember that plaque bearing Sabrina’s family crest that she glimpsed before her job interview? It’s still on the conference room wall. There’s another image of the Double Fin Killer Whale crest too, next to the copy machine and the front desk. Sabrina discovered that image on her first day at work; it’s the one that confirmed her feeling that she was home.