Six graduate a Tanana Chiefs apprenticeship built to staff Interior clinics

Six apprentices have completed Tanana Chiefs Conference's yearlong healthcare apprenticeship at the Chief Andrew Isaac Health Center in Fairbanks — the first cohort in which every apprentice who started the program finished it, TCC said.

Four completed the medical assistant track (Asasha Martin, Chelsea Curwin, Naya Derendoff and Sierra Demoski) and two the referral coordinator track (Lyco Icalina and Takoda Shoemaker). The program pairs weekly virtual classes with hands-on clinical training over a year, with apprentices working full time and paid from the day they're hired.

The apprenticeship exists to fill a real gap: open clinical support positions at the health center, which serves tribal communities across a vast stretch of Interior Alaska — 39 villages spread over 235,000 square miles. TCC runs it in partnership with the Alaska Primary Care Association, one of several training pipelines the consortium uses to grow its own workforce from the communities it serves.