YKHC’s Scholarship Program offers scholarships in alignment with the strategic goal to build a strong Alaska Native workforce. We are proud to announce that we have 25 scholarship recipients for the fall 2023 semester, and a total award amount of over $65,000. Sixteen of the 25 awardees (64%) awardees are Alaska Native. The next scholarship deadline is November 1, 2023. For application and/or further information on the scholarship program, contact Naomi Digitaki at naomi_digitaki@ykhc.org or call 907 543-6943. More information can be found online at www.ykhc.org/education/

The seven YKHC employees who received awards are Bola Falana (LTC Charge Nurse) , Cheryl Smith (BH Clinician), Elsie Ilmar (BH Credentialing Specialist), Lianna Brown (Deputy Director, Revenue Management), Esther Tobeluk (CHP), Leanna Gray (RN, Outpatient), and Liza Joseph (BH Directing Clinician). Congratulations to our employees and we hope to see more employee applications in the next scholarship cycle.

We feature two of the seven employees who are amongst our Fall 2023 scholarship recipients – Lianna Lincoln (pictured below left) and Elsie Ilmar (below right).

Lianna Lincoln is the Deputy Director of Revenue Management at YKHC. Here is what she had to share.

I am grateful for the scholarship as it has helped me financially, but most importantly it has kept me motivated. I have been with YKHC since May 2005 and have worked my way up the career ladder. I started out in data entry and was promoted to the Deputy Director of Revenue Management in May 2023. I am ecstatic and nervous at the same time but I have a great mentor.

I have been working in this department for 17 years and have seen the need for certified medical coders. We have had to hire people from out of state or out of region and even contracted health information management (HIM) work out at times. I could apply my learning and give back to YKHC by encouraging YK Delta residents to consider a career in HIM.

This scholarship will help me towards my goal of expanding our coding department and promoting and recruiting Alaska Native candidates to join this wonderful team. I would like to build longevity and keep working in the YK Delta with medical coding, medical records and documentation improvement.

Elsie Ilmar serves as a Behavioral Health Training & Credentialing Coordinator at YKHC. Here is what she shares about her educational journey.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve had a strong passion for helping people in my rural community. I’m particularly excited by the opportunity to join a network of leaders who help to maintain YKHC’s Behavioral Health Program, which I have been an employee with for over three years now as a Credential Coordinator. I received my Counselor Technician certificate last year and am working to receive my Chemical Dependency Counselor-1 certificate.

My training, education, and experience working in behavioral health have provided me with a strong background with both communication and problem solving. I have always been passionate about this area of knowledge and would like nothing more than to continue a higher education at UAF.

My goal is to use my education to give back to my home community. I want to specialize in giving the best possible and sustainable treatment for Alaskans in behavioral health and substance use disorder treatment and families with trauma. My passion for this field was inspired by my job and family, and I am all too aware of the impact of high mental health and substance use disorders in underprivileged communities.  This scholarship would enable me to achieve these aims. I intend to ensure that my communities’ confidence in me is paid forward, to spread the benefits to the people before me and to our future generations.