Dr. Jamie Donatuto graduated from our program with a PhD in 2008 and is now the manager of the Swinomish Community Environmental Health Program at the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community in the Coast Salish Nation. Her work includes researching chemicals and other toxicants in local traditional foods and tribal health-related impacts from climate change, launching an environmental health education program, and developing community-based Indigenous Health Indicators.
Donatuto explained that her real-world experiences right after receiving her undergraduate degree deeply influenced her. The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community (Coast Salish Nation, current day Washington State) hired her fresh out of undergrad (where she obtained a BS in environmental science/chemistry) to research toxics in locally harvested seafoods.
“In my first year at Swinomish, I rapidly realized that western science definitions of health and pollution are not universally held truths,” Donatuto said. “Swinomish saw health as relationships between humans (families), the more-than-humans (all other sentient beings) and the natural world.”
She spent the next decade working towards a more encompassing and accurate Swinomish definition of health (aka the Indigenous Health Indicators), embarking on a journey jointly at IRES and with the Swinomish community.
“Part of my journey included returning to university for my PhD at UBC’s IRES under the thoughtful supervisory guidance of Dr. Terre Satterfield and my Committee: Drs. Robin Gregory, Charles Menzies, Pat Cirone (U.S. EPA retired), and Hadi Dowlatabadi,” she said. “An equal part encompassed spending hours learning from and being guided by Swinomish Elders and knowledge holders, in particular Wanaseah Larry Campbell. All of my teachers pushed me to expand my vision, to question more deeply, and to thoroughly deliberate the research. Larry and his family taught me to listen deeply and embrace more than one way of knowing.”
Today, the IRES alumna remains committed to the work she began after her first degree:
“Twenty-four years later, I continue to work as the Swinomish Community Health Analyst. I am honored to carry on the knowledge shared with me by my teachers, both from UBC and from the Indigenous communities with whom I have had the honor to work.“