Growing up, Leah Creaser spent much of her time with her friend Taylor adventuring behind their older brothers. Those excursions typically involved heading out on four-wheelers to some water and dropping a line to see if they could catch anything. While she didn’t always come home with dinner, Creaser did catch a love for fish. She is currently completing a bachelor’s degree in biology with a focus on fish science at Acadia University in Nova Scotia.
Creaser, Mi’kmaq, grew up in the small, rural town of Centreville in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley. As a child, she didn’t appreciate how much her family struggled. Looking back, she realizes the lengths her parents went to in order to support their children, and their struggles have had a significant impact on her today. “You need to work for what you want and appreciate what you do have,” she explains.
Creaser understands this idea better than most, as success in high school did not come easy. After a rocky start, she switched to a new school and hoped her high school experience would get better. Instead, she encountered more hurdles. “I was put on academic probation. I had some teachers tell me to just leave the classroom because they decided I wouldn’t be anything,” she explains. Despite these setbacks, Creaser found support from a select few teachers, and ended up graduating with honors.
After high school, Creaser pursued her initial goal of working with animals by completing her diploma in veterinary assistance. After five years in the field, Creaser decided to go back to school at Acadia University to start a path into becoming a veterinarian. There she found herself in a situation that set her apart. She was older than most of the other students and found it difficult to juggle classes, full-time work, and paying bills. “I failed a few classes trying to maintain a full courseload,” she says.
Additionally, Creaser keenly felt the lack of a First Nation community on campus. “I would walk around just wondering who else was Indigenous that I could connect with,” she says. “Who else could I practice culture or ceremony with?” Creaser found an answer when she joined — and eventually became president of — the Indigenous Student Society of Acadia. She has also become involved in other ways on campus, including serving as a traditional drummer and singer for Melgita’t Women and as a student chair of the university’s Indigenous Education Council.
After her second year of university, she landed a summer job in a fish laboratory, and a light bulb went off. Working with fish became Creaser’s passion, one she knew she needed to follow. “I quickly rearranged my class schedule to become a biologist focusing on fish,” she recalls.
Today Creaser is a fifth-year honors biology student, with a focus on fish science, and she couldn’t be happier. “Working in the fish laboratory is now my life,” she says. She finds the work both interesting and challenging. Just as important, Creaser also finds the environment supportive of her culture. “I learned from working there that research projects can be fully inclusive with First Nation communities,” she adds.
Recognizing the value of traditional Indigenous knowledge in science is important to Creaser, and she has taken a big step to help all students — Indigenous and non-Indigenous — appreciate it too. Creaser created her own lab incorporating Mi’kmaq knowledge as part of a research project and agreed to teach 120 first-year students about her band’s traditional plant knowledge. That lab is now part of the core biology course required of first-year students.
This year Creaser was one of only 10 students across Canada awarded a prestigious 3M National Student Fellowship. Her goal is to obtain a PhD in biology focusing on fish science and become a professor, incorporating Indigenous knowledge into her research projects. She enjoys a challenge and is ready for what lies ahead.
“Remain proud of who you are, and who your ancestors are.”
Creaser wants everyone to have that same confidence, and she encourages others to pursue their passions regardless of what people say. “Any authority figure who has made you feel unable to be what you want is 100 percent mistaken,” she says. Creaser tells other Indigenous students to focus on themselves and their goals, and to be proud of who they are and where they came from. “You don’t need to prove who you are to anyone,” she explains. “Remain proud of who you are, and who your ancestors are.” For her part, Creaser has made her choice and she knows it is the right one.
—Alexa Panza
Acadia First Nation is a Mi’kmaq band that celebrates tribal traditions and ceremonies in their culturally significant territory spanning five counties in beautiful southwestern Nova Scotia.
Growing up in the Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo in New Mexico, Dr. Denise Gabaldon-Thronas saw family members and friends struggling with a range of ailments from diabetes to cancer, and was determined to choose a career that would allow her to help them.
The first from her family to attend college, she focused on biochemistry at New Mexico State University, hoping to apply her degree in some aspect of health care. “I was initially interested in pharmaceuticals for curing disease,” she says, “but that was problematic because of our cultural beliefs in healing.”
After she graduated, Dr. Gabaldon-Thronas jumped at the chance to apply for a job at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), both because of the lab’s distinguished reputation and because she could continue to live in her community. “But I couldn’t get into the bioscience group,” she says, “because I didn’t have an advanced degree. So instead I began working as an organic chemistry technician and eventually worked my way up to become a senior technical project manager in the Chemistry Division working on high-profile projects.”
Despite loving her career at LANL, and feeling grateful for the professional development and scientific knowledge she gained there, Dr. Gabaldon-Thronas felt the pull of a career in health care. “I have family members with health issues, and they haven’t had good care,” she says. “To be the change I want to see in the world, I had to be that doctor providing sound treatment plans and education so people could make informed health choices for themselves and their families.”
Then in 2011, a series of coincidences led Dr. Gabaldon-Thronas to find her path. “I experienced my first back spasm and was in excruciating pain,” she says. “But I couldn’t take prescription pain killers because of my security clearance.” Just a year before, Dr. Gabaldon-Thronas had met a naprapathic doctor at a LANL health fair and tried a 10-minute treatment. “I made an appointment,” she recalls, “to see if he could help my pain and answer the ‘why?’ I was so impressed with the treatment and the holistic philosophy behind the modality that I immediately knew this was my calling.” In 2017 she enrolled at the Southwest University of Naprapathic Medicine (SUNM) in Santa Fe, N.M. “It was a life-changing decision that captured my passion for holistic healing,” she says.
Naprapathic medicine combines manual therapy of connective tissues with a holistic approach to treating pain and dysfunction. Most naprapathic practitioners combine handson manipulation with other therapeutic modalities and nutritional counseling, using different techniques depending on the patient’s problem. For Dr. Gabaldon-Thronas, the holistic element of naprapathy struck a chord. “Naprapaths are connective tissue specialists, yes, but we are also specialists in connecting those three critical elements of a person: mind (biochemical), body (biomechanical), and spirit (psychosocial). That’s the piece that is so often missing in Western medicine, and is well understood by traditional Indigenous healers,” she says.
“To be the change I want to see in the world, I had to be that doctor providing sound treatment plans and education so people could make informed health choices for themselves and their families.”
But Dr. Gabaldon-Thronas is also a scientist who understands the importance of research and of being able to prove why things work the way they do. In her current position as a faculty member at SUNM, Dr. Gabaldon-Thronas is hard at work on the research component established by Dr. Oakley Smith, founder of naprapathy. “I think scientifically,” she says, “and I could immediately correlate the scientific basis for why naprapathy is so effective. I am utilizing my experience and background in research to further the science of naprapathy, and hopefully provide a bridge between the natural, holistic side and the empirical side.”
Pairing ever-advancing medical imaging technology with the knowledge that underpins the practice of naprapathy, Dr. Gabaldon-Thronas believes, should soon demonstrate the utility of this drug-free therapy. In the meantime, she is doing what she was always meant to do — helping heal people by focusing on the mind-body-spirit connection in the naprapathic way that resonates with her community.
—Amy Engle
Near the Ohkay Owingeh (formerly San Juan) Pueblo village in New Mexico, where the Rio Grande and Chama Rivers meet, are petroglyphs carved at least 10,000 years ago by the ancestors of these Tewa-speaking people.
“It’s a great way to get your foot in the door of companies supporting Native students and professionals. I’m so glad I joined AISES while at NAU and am very thankful for their support.”
Mechanical engineer Jacob Belin enjoys understanding how things work. He’s discovered he also likes being part of a team that looks for innovative ways to create new solutions. Even though he’s just 24, Belin is a propulsion systems engineer for Stellantis, a leading global automaker whose brands include Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Jeep, Opel, and Ram. So far, his path has included some trial and error and conscious effort — with a little help from AISES summer internships.
Stellantis is working on cutting-edge electrification, connectivity, and autonomous driving. As part of his job, Belin manages and develops features for electrified powertrains, which use both electric motors and a combustion engine to propel the vehicle forward. “Today car makers are moving away from traditional engine driven powertrains and toward more efficient electrified power trains to benefit the customer and comply with environmental regulations,” explains Belin. He is enthusiastic about electric power trains because they decrease demand on the engine and tailpipe emissions while improving efficiency.
Belin’s days consist of virtual meetings involving colleagues from many different departments, including controls, software engineering, and validation, and then communicating pertinent information to the company’s suppliers. “It’s really rewarding to see the world-class, behind-the-scenes engineering required to create all the options that ultimately are offered to the customer,” says Belin. His next career goal is to become a senior engineer, which will give him the chance to work on engine design.
Belin has always had a passion for cars and performance, so working at Stellantis is a natural fit. “It’s the power of the engine that fascinates me — it’s the heart of the vehicle,” he explains. “The most satisfying part of my job is dynamometer testing, which requires putting the vehicle or engine in a test cell where they are put through simulated driving scenarios. During aggressive throttles, you can hear the engine rev to a high RPM and that is my favorite part.”
Before joining Stellantis as a full-time employee in February of this year. Belin had completed two summer internships with the company: one in 2019 at the Chrysler World Headquarters and Technology Center in Auburn Hills, Mich., with the second in 2020 completed virtually due to the pandemic. He found his internships — which he believes helped him land a full-time position with Stellantis after college — during the College and Career Fair at an AISES National Conference. At the time Belin was a member of the Northern Arizona University College Chapter. “The fair offers a wealth of different career opportunities,” Belin says. “It’s a great way to get your foot in the door of companies supporting Native students and professionals. I’m so glad I joined AISES while at NAU and am very thankful for their support.”
Belin, Navajo, was born and raised in the Four Corners area near Farmington, N.M. — far from his current home in Royal Oak, Mich. One of four children, Belin says his parents set the bar high by demonstrating rigor and integrity. “They made sure all four of us received a quality education and supported us throughout all our extracurricular activities. But a good upbringing can only take you so far,” he explains. “I absolutely put a lot of effort into developing myself and in planning for my future so I could be competitive in the classroom and the workplace.”
Belin also attributes his success to his first internship manager at Stellantis. “He led us through a historical overview of the auto industry and the company, showing us interns that we were part of Motor City’s auto culture. He gave me good career advice like how to present to managers and colleagues, cultivate relationships across departments, and plan the next step in my career path,” Belin says. For Belin, the experience was a life-changer. “Before the internships, my career path was in energy,” he says. “Through this introduction to the company, auto culture, and Michigan, I found my true path as an automotive engineer.”
Stellantis provides employees with many options to become active in its business resource groups (BRGs), which support employee career and cultural interests. Belin is a member of the company’s First Nations BRG. “It was First Nations that gave Stellantis the idea to connect with AISES,” he points out. The rest, as they say, is history.
—Kimberly Durment Locke
The Four Corners Monument is a tribal park maintained by Navajo Nation Parks and Recreation marking the location where four states — Arizona, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico — meet.