Colleen Chalmers

Colleen Chalmers (she/her) joins the SAIH community with a background rooted in Native community advocacy, storytelling, and systems change. She has spent more than a decade working alongside Native American and Alaska Native communities through roles in direct services, program management, communications, and special project coordination. Her experience includes work with Chief Seattle Club, Equity Matters, Native American Youth & Family Services, National Urban Indian Family Coalition, Pike Place Market Foundation, and KCRHA.
 

Colleen is Native on her mother’s side (Métis). She grew up in San Francisco, was born in Seattle, and returned to the Pacific Northwest over a decade ago. She brings a journalist’s eye, a photographer’s sensibility, and a deep commitment to equity and representation in housing and homelessness systems. She’s also known for her speaking engagements on decolonizing systems of care and advancing Native visibility in public health and homelessness data.

She holds a journalism degree from Humboldt State University (now Cal Poly Humboldt), with minors in photography and Native American studies.

Fun fact: she once worked the Missing Persons beat at the Eureka Times‑Standard and spent her college years managing and cooking at a Japanese noodle house.

Colleen is excited to support SAIH’s administrative coordination, communications, and community‑building work.