The ROAD LESS Traveled

Alaska Native Siobhan Wescott's journey from nomadic childhood to esteemed professor was full of twists, turns and generational trauma. Now she dedicates her career to the only people who have ever felt like home

- JUDI KETTELER

Siobhan Wescott keeps a small framed photo in her office that reminds her of home — and of just how far she’s come. It’s a picture of a wide dirt road in a forest near the tiny cabin outside Fairbanks, AK, where she grew up. Along the horizon, the road meets a billow of smokelike clouds, then fades to a white nothingness.

As kids, Siobhan and her brother, Liam, would sometimes walk that road to catch a ride to school, clambering over snowdrifts to get there.

Siobhan, now 56, is an Alaska Native of the Athabascan tribe and one of the few Native people in the U.S. to hold an endowed professorship. (She holds both an M.D. and an M.P.H., serving as the director of American Indian Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.) “The Athabascans are a group that is inherently nomadic,” says Siobhan, which might explain the many addresses she’s had over the years. “But even nomads find a way to have a home base. Alaska always seemed like home.”

Today, Fairbanks is the second largest city by population in Alaska, a hub for regional transportation, military operations and a thriving tourism industry. But Siobhan's ancestors survived their harsh homeland not by relishing their surroundings but by moving constantly, following the migration of animals. "They lived in small bands with simple camps that could be broken down and carried to the next hunting site," she says.

Similarly, Siobhan's path to health care, policy and teaching wasn't a straight line.