Show Summary

with Lesa Shaw, an experienced Indigenous consultant and community leader with more than 30 years of service across Tribal, federal, state, and municipal sectors. Lesa and I talk about PsychArmor’s effort to develop training materials through their effort supporting Native American and Alaska Native Veterans and Service Members. 

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About Today’s Guest

Lesa Shaw is a tribal leader, public-health consultant, and advocate dedicated to improving health outcomes for Native and Tribal communities, especially Native American veterans. She holds a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Oklahoma. 

Over her career, Lesa has held multiple roles across federal, state, tribal, and local government. She has served as a contracting officer and practice manager with the Indian Health Service, worked as a health-policy analyst for tribes, and served as a municipal-level elected official in the city of Shawnee at the request of the central tribes. 

In tribal service, Lesa has worked to bridge cultural traditions and modern health policy — advocating for culturally respectful care that honors tribal identity and heritage while addressing systemic inequalities in access to care. 

More recently, she has been part of the advisory committee of PsychArmor ’s Native American & Alaska Native Veterans Health & Wellness initiative — helping guide efforts to make veteran care more culturally informed and supportive of Native and Tribal peoples. 

Lesa remains deeply committed to amplifying the voices of Native veterans and their families, building trust between tribal communities and federal care systems, and laying the groundwork for long-term, culturally grounded health equity.

Links Mentioned During the Episode

BTM214 – Dr. Melita “Chepa” Rank

BTM 220 – CSM(R) Julia Kelly

BTM222 – Dean Dauphinais

PsychArmor Resource of the Week

This week’s PsychArmor Resource of the Week is the PsychArmor course course Understanding the VA for Caregivers. This course helps caregivers navigate and better utilize the services of the VA – the largest integrated healthcare system in the country. The content for this course was developed collaboratively with a working group of various VA Departments.

You can find the resource here: 

https://learn.psycharmor.org/courses/understanding-the-va-for-caregivers-2

Episode Partner:

Are you an organization that engages with or supports the military affiliated community? Would you like to partner with an engaged and dynamic audience of like-minded professionals? Reach out to Inquire about Partnership Opportunities

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Theme Music

Our theme music Don’t Kill the Messenger was written and performed by Navy Veteran Jerry Maniscalco, in cooperation with Operation Encore, a non profit committed to supporting singer/songwriter and musicians across the military and Veteran communities.

Producer and Host Duane France is a retired Army Noncommissioned Officer, combat veteran, and clinical mental health counselor for service members, veterans, and their families.  You can find more about the work that he is doing at www.veteranmentalhealth.com