SPEAKERS

Marlene M Adams, I am Inupiaq, born in Kotzebue raised in Fairbanks and Kenai Alaska. I am grateful to be in recovery. My family relations span across the North with many residing out of state. I have one adult child who I raised as a single Mom and she resides in Anchorage. When asked about why I love Prevention I say it started when I gave birth to my child because I wanted a different world for her that included education around healthy choices, breaking the cycles and advocating for herself. Some of my favorite things to do include hiking year-round, berry picking, yoga, traveling to new places and spending time laughing with family and friends.

Jose Arellano is Co-Director of Navigation and Case Management at Homeboy Industries, training individuals how to transition out of gang culture and regain their lives.  Arellano’s family was in gang culture. Despite excelling at school, Arellano got involved with a gang by age 12. Three years later, he was in jail for the first time.  Arellano said there was always someone to give him hope even in the darkest times, including when he was facing a life sentence in prison. He started as a trainee himself and now today helps trainees make those life changes. 

Eliza Eller is a founding mother of the bustling peer support village of Ionia – a cooperative eco-village in Kasilof (see www.ionia.org). Eliza’s recipe for staying sane and well includes wholesome plant based foods, close family and peer support, and simple seasonal activities such as gardening, natural building and berry picking. She is a peer support trainer who has practiced a holistic macrobiotic lifestyle for thirty years, and has thirteen beautiful, talented children as well as six young grandchildren, with whom she loves to cook, go sledding and read books. Eliza manages non-profit grants, and directs MUSKEG Wellness – for wellness and peer support trainings and workshops around Alaska. She is interested in projects underlining the connection between nature, self and community.

“My goal is to help as many people as I can to gain and maintain recovery. I aspire to obtain my PSP3-S and become a manager with my current company by this time next year. I’m a kid at heart and love to color and paint abstract art”.  

Ptery Lieght is a long time activist for mental health rights and has also spent a great deal of time with learning alternative medicines. He now supports mindfulness as a deep level of healing and is driven to grow community.

Sean Morton has 14 years clean and sober, and his sober date being July 20, 2008. Initially he served as a youth and family pastor for a variety of churches and denominations for a decade. Specifically serving youth that struggled with addiction and/or that had family members in addiction.  I came to AK in January of 2020 to work at True North Recovery as an OP Peer Support Specialist. I served in that role for 2 years before transitioning into crisis services. I then became the Mobile Crisis Team Program Manager in December of 2022.  He has been featured in many podcasts on peer support and shares his experiences with others.  “What I want people to know about people suffering from SUD is that we are in fact people. It’s easy to box someone in and vilify them as a junkie, addict, or drunk and hold those labels over them, forgetting that we are people, hurting, scared, trying to survive people. And the best way for a person to overcome their addiction is to be part of a community, a loving, boundary-setting, generous community.”

Sasha was born and raised in Northern California, building her career as a peer through lived experience. 10/11/ 2007 she chose a different journey and has been free from mood- and mind-altering substances since. Moving to Anchorage Alaska in 2009 Sasha was introduced to opportunities where her lived experience offered support to other like- minded individuals and professionals. This was the catalyst that created her passion for creating platforms for individuals and communities to be heard and validated through peer support services. Sasha uses her personal and professional lived experience to offer support and training to organizations that are integrating and implementing peer support specialists across all continuums of care, professional development, and program development. Sasha’s education includes: Masters in Social Work, Peer Support Professional III Certification, and Chemical Dependency Counselor Supervisor Certification. 

Sarah Weber is a lifelong Alaskan. Alongside her husband of 21 years has raised their 4 children right here in Anchorage.  After a long battle with addiction that brought her to the edge of death, Sarah sought recovery and has been sober since October of 2017. Sarah joined a recovery program in early 2018, during her 8 months in treatment is where she learned the power of peers. It was this experience that lit a fire in Sarah, to be the resource she wished she’d had when she was struggling. She used the covid closures to find trainings and educational opportunities, earning her Peer Support Specialist certification in January of 2021. In June 2021 Sarah became the Family Support Coordinator for VOA AK, where she works alongside youth struggling with substance misuse and their families.  As a Peer Support with a focus on the family she works to help families reconnect, recover, heal, and break the cycle of addiction. “It wasn’t just me that needed recovery, it was my whole family.