Ashley Tuomi | Unexpected Path to Growth

Ashley Tuomi on growth: "Take any opportunity to increase our knowledge." Ashley Tuomi (Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde) is the Executive Director of the American Indian Health and Family Services. Currently, she is the President of the National Council of Urban Indian Health. Ashley's career did not end up where she imagined, but she is right where she is supposed to be. Ashley's father served in the military, her family moved constantly for the first several years of her life. As a child she thought her career path led to plastic surgery. Ashley did not have dreams of working for actors in Hollywood, but rather she saw the real impact of plastic surgery on people who needed it such as kids with cleft palates. Everyone knew her goal, powwow emcees introduced her as the future doctor. The Curved Path That experience shifted in college. Her plans shifted after a difficult class. Ashley felt devastated. Everyone knew her goal, and she shifted course. She learned a valuable lesson: things are not usually as bad as people think they are in the moment. Her career transition did not veer away entirely from college. She enrolled in a Master's program in Health Administration, thinking rather than serving as a plastic surgeon, her goal evolved to run a practice. But her Master's program nudged her to Indian health after she received a scholarship from the Indian Health Service. The scholarship required her to work in the Indian health system for two years. Ashley turned her studies almost exclusively to learning about IHS.After graduate school she found herself in Los Angeles at an urban Indian health clinic. That position led to opportunities to run clinics, which led her to Detroit. Her leadership at the American Indian Health and Family Services led to her work at the national level. A colleague urged her to get involved in NCUIH and her colleagues elected her as the organization's president. Ashley discusses how she grew into these leadership roles as a young leader and overcame questions about her age. As a young leader, Ashley Tuomi is likely bound for a long career as a leader in Indian health and in Indian Country generally.