Linda Ruth Guild Curda was born in Brazil on January 12, 1949, to Mary and Philip Guild while her father, a geologist, was on assignment with the United States Geological Survey (USGS). When she was three, the family moved to Chevy Chase, MD, a suburb of Washington, D.C., where she grew up with her older sister, Nancy, and younger brother, Robert, aka Turk. After graduating from high school, Curda attended the University of Maryland earning her Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing (BSN) in 1971. While at the University, she met and later married Dale, and in the summer of 1972, they packed up their yellow VW square back “with 2 dogs, a box of books, a sewing machine and fishing gear and drove across the United States…,” she states in an interview in the Delta Discovery newspaper, April 4, 2001. The couple drove up the unpaved Alcan, arriving in the fall in Anchorage, jobless.  While there were job opportunities for Dale, a teacher at the time, Linda’s options were few. “Kodiak had housing for me and the husband, but without our dogs,” she jokes in another Delta Discovery interview in 2000. “Bethel had housing for me and the dogs, but without the husband.” Bethel was the obvious choice. The couple landed in Bethel on October 2, 1972, Dale with a job as an ESL instructor at Kilbuck School and Linda as a staff nurse at the old PHS Hospital (now torn down). Thus began her long career in the health field. 

Linda and Dale took a hiatus from Alaska from 1975-1980 during which time she earned her Masters of Public Health and Certified Nurse Midwife from John Hopkins University; she was then asked to stay and teach in their Nurse Midwifery Program, which she did while Dale was completing his law degree.

Thinking that midwifery would be her profession upon returning to Bethel in 1980, she soon found herself with a job at the Kuskokwim Community College (KCC back then, now Kuskokwim Campus, UAF) with the Community Health Aide Program. Curda quickly became the coordinator for the Basic Training Program, a position she held for 12 years until a reorganization moved the program back to the Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation (YKHC). Curda remained at the Kuskokwim Campus as faculty.

Recently Curda stepped into an unexpected but important role at KuC as Acting Director of Kuskokwim Campus. In October 2018, Curda was asked to take on the position of Acting Director (in addition to her other duties) as KuC’s then current Director was gravely ill and subsequently died just a month later after a valiant battle with cancer. A search for a permanent Director met with few or no acceptable candidates. In the summer of 2020, Curda was asked to remain in this position for another academic year, through June 2021. Besides her continuing position as UAF Community Health Aide/Practitioner (CHA/P) Program Academic Liaison, she now had to deal with shrinking University budgets, personnel issues, operating a dormitory and cultural center – and then COVID-19 and all the issues that the virus brought with it, such as campus access; CDC, State and University protocols; migrating from face-to-face classes to online platforms; and keeping students and employees safe. When Pfizer announced the roll out of their vaccine and the fact that it must be kept at -94 degrees, a KuC staff with vast institutional knowledge informed Curda that KuC had such a freezer. She immediately put in motion the process of moving the freezer to YKHC for community use in storing and distributing the vaccine.

Curda’s professional and work history are extensive, much of it revolving around her various roles guiding and shaping the Community Health Aides/Practitioners Program in the YK Delta and the State. As an example, in 1988 she was the editor and technical advisor for a paper written for Congress entitled Community Health Aide Program in Crisis, presented before the US Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs, which resulted in several million dollars of additional funding for the program.

One of her biggest tasks and achievements has been her work on the Community Health Aide/Practitioner Manual (CHAM), first in 1987 as a contributing editor, then in 2006 as Project Leader and Managing Editor for a complete revision of the manual to include 4 volumes with a CD-ROM. Curda realized early on that having a comprehensive, easy to use, step by step user guide for health aides to use in their home villages would facilitate communications between patient, health aide and doctor thereby increasing patient care. CHAM is currently undergoing the transition from paper records to electronic files.

This excerpt from an interview in 2005 for the Jukebox Project, Part 1, Transcript 7, illustrates the need for CHAM: 

And so in 198 — spring of ’81, I went out to Atmauthluak, and there was a health aide ––who was — had finished Session 1, quote, unquote, finished.  This is before we had some of these changes.  And she wasn’t getting it.  People were concerned.
And I went to work with her and I knew I had my list of things that I was going to be required to see how she was doing.  And she was a very nice young woman, but lost.  And she said, I don’t know where to begin.  If somebody’s old or if they are young or if they are man or a woman, if they are a baby, I don’t know where I begin the visit.
When she shared that, and that took probably a half a day to get to that question, because we can have our own agenda, but if we don’t listen to what the person’s problem is — and once I realized she’s — that was her key thing, she didn’t know how to begin, and I just said, well, you just need one question.  What brought you to clinic today?
And as soon as she could see that everything started from the same place, she could organize her thoughts and get some clarity to it.  But she really thought that she needed a separate script for each of these individuals.

And that was the beginning of my education to see that we really hadn’t provided the tools that individuals needed to do their job.

Curda could have remained in the classroom teaching in the traditional Western method, but she didn’t. She saw the potential for improving the curriculum and ways of teaching it, so that the level of knowledge the students received and took home to their villages would improve health care in rural Alaska. She began creating tools that enabled both instructor and student to do their jobs better. In addition to the CHAM, Curda also authored 3 editions of a workbook to visually help students understand the human body and its systems: Illustrated Human Anatomy, Function and Medical Language.

Many, many health aides and practitioners look to her for guidance, moral support, and mentoring. If you look at the succession of health aides in the villages, you will find generations of health care workers from the same families – grandmothers, mothers, daughters, an occasional father, brother, or son, evidence to the fact that being a village health aide is not simply a job, but a way of nurturing, giving back, and caring for and about each other. These are all traditional beliefs interwoven throughout the Community Health Aide Program with the help of people like Curda.

South Sudan Medical Project. Concerning Curda’s involvement with and commitment to the South Sudan Medical Relief Clinic operated by Dr. Jill Seaman, a totally volunteer run relief effort in Old Fangak, South Sudan, Africa, Dr. Jill states:  

I met Linda in Bethel in the early 1980’s.  I knew her as an advocate for health aides but did not know her well back then. More recently we have connected through the South Sudan Medical Relief Clinic that I run in the bush of South Sudan.  In the fall of 2014 Linda came to Old Fangak to our medical project.  At that time, we had thousands of patients with kala azar, a deadly tropical disease that does have a treatment requiring daily injections for 3 to 4 weeks.  She came and increased her involvement with the program from our homes in Alaska.

Our little village, in the midst of a newly independent land, South Sudan, was without infrastructure.  Much of the healthcare was with community health workers.  Having Linda volunteer was a perfect fit!  She’s really knowledgeable about trainings for village people without a previous medical degree.  A few years back, I used a book she had published to teach basic anatomy and physiology to nurse aides.  It was a beautifully organized book and training manual, organized so each page was complete.  Included were fill in the blank pictures to help students remember what they had just learned.  It has been an awesome course for our people.

I remember exactly why I decided we needed to use Linda’s book.  Our local people have never had the opportunity for an education other than that for survival in the war-torn bush.  One of my really good health workers trained in-country was working with me.  I remember asking if he knew what made the blood go around in the body.  He thought a bit and said, “Maybe the lungs?” He took the course, loved it, and was able to understand it.  He now finally will complete a nursing school in Uganda and return to us in a few months.

When Linda, a trained midwife, arrived here in South Sudan, she had no trouble molding an approach to health education for the needs here.  Though we were in the middle of a kala azar epidemic, there were so many other problems.  One was the highest maternal mortality rate in the world.  Linda was able to show that post-partum rubbing the uterus could stop post-partum hemorrhage.  She could train local traditional birth attendants.  This contrasted with the Harvard approach of placing intrauterine balloon pressure.  She was awesome.

Linda has been such a supporter of the program, from hosting slide show fundraisers in Alaska to helping get the fundraising thank you letters out.  Her understanding from being in the bush with us is instrumental in helping spread the world’s wealth and knowledge.  Her background in village community health care from the YK delta transfers so well to our brothers and sisters in South Sudan.

Curda states the following about her volunteer stay at the clinic in South Sudan as a visiting professor and health provider: “During a five week stay I worked in the clinic under the direction of Dr. Jill Seaman providing patient care; wound management; prenatal and post-partum care; and immunizations. I taught her clinical staff respiratory system anatomy and physiology; basic math skills; biology subjects – in addition, I gave a workshop for the traditional birth attendants in labor and delivery focusing on prevention of post-delivery hemorrhage.” 

Dr. Jill returns to Bethel each summer to work at YKHC, earning some money to sustain her South Sudan clinic and also fundraising. In the early years, she never knew where she was going to live when she came back, house sitting or couch surfing during her stay. Through Curda’s efforts, Dr. Jill now has a permanent place to call home when in Bethel – she and Linda share each other’s company in a small house of their own. Curda has been a South Sudan Medical Project member since 2008.

Cama-i Dance Festival. Curda’s friend, Melany Cueva, writes in a 2016 nomination for the First Lady’s Volunteer of the Year Award about Curda’s involvement in the Cama-i Dance Festival:

During my first trip to Bethel in 1998 to provide cancer education with and for Alaska’s Community Health Aides/Practitioners, CHA/Ps and their Health Aide program, instructors recommended that I meet Linda Curda. Linda, a registered nurse and nurse midwife, had a long history of working with Alaska’s Community Health Aide Program and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Within hours of our introduction, I was in her skiff on the river, experiencing first-hand her love and passion for the YK Delta, the land, and the people.

Almost 30 years ago Linda began giving back to the Delta by putting her heart and hands together to organize and coordinate the annual Cama-i Dance Festival.  Since its inception, Linda has taken the lead to ensure the successful orchestration of each detail. Linda volunteers with an abundance of energy to bring together dance groups throughout the YK Delta to gather in community and celebrate traditions. Cama-i has energized a cultural resurgence of dance in SW Alaska resulting in mental, spiritual, and physical benefits. Due to the suppression of Alaska Native culture over the centuries, Cama-i provides opportunities for villages to resume their traditional dances after generations of dormancy.

It is a lengthy, mind-boggling list of activities that Linda seamlessly undertakes with others in the region that have made Cama-i one of the premiere dance festivals in Alaska. Linda’s Cama-i journey begins each summer when she fishes to provide salmon to nourish the elders and guests. Throughout the year, Linda listens and responds to people’s desires to nurture wellness throughout their region, which has given birth to expanding Cama-i to include a drumming circle (now called The Heart of the Drum) as a way to heal the collective heartbeat of the Delta. Linda has a hand in organizing and coordinating each and every detail from inception to take down. She is the first to arrive to set-up and start the festival and the last to leave each night, helping to clean the gym and secure the building. Cama-i celebrates the dynamic beauty of culture as it is experienced in the language of song, dance, movement, and regalia.

Linda exemplifies the true spirit of volunteerism, not only through her gift of leadership in working with others to coordinate the Cama-i Dance Festival, but also in the way she lives. If there is a need, Linda figures out how to make it work; “no” is not a part of Linda’s vocabulary. Throughout the years, I have witnessed Linda sharing her wisdom to assist with language-preservation projects, providing medical assistance in Sudan, and offering loving care to friends in need. Linda’s legacy is to walk gently, offer kindness, and enrich the world by her ways of being. I am blessed to call Linda my friend, mentor, and inspiration. 

Curda herself states, “My role is to say ‘yes’ to everything that happens during Cama-i, bringing the worlds together for a weekend of celebration.” What she doesn’t say is that she meets every single one of the 20 or more dance groups personally. She also sees each one of them off when they leave, thanking them for coming and participating in the event. She treats each one like family, with respect and kindness. 

Curda has mentored and continues to mentor volunteers involved in the Cama-i Dance Festival to take over coordinator and leadership roles to assure that the Festival remains vibrant and alive in years to come. She also worked with Bethel Community Foundation Services to set up a permanent fund to support the festival and local dance traditions.

Curda has been honored in her life to be an adopted daughter of Maryann and Teddy Sundown of Scammon Bay. Over the course of many years, Curda participated in events both big and small, joyful and sorrowful, with the Sundown family, becoming part of them. There is nothing legal or binding about this type of “adoption,” just an understanding of inclusion and mutual respect developed over time. The “Diva of Dance,” Maryann, who performed over and over at Cama-i to the sheer delight of audiences, passed away in October 2011. A story about her life and death, which appeared in the Anchorage Daily News, ended by saying, “A list provided by the family included three adopted grandchildren…and three “special adopted children,” Linda Curda, Baby Boy Mike Hoffman and Sheila Wallace.” Linda is also a great aunt in the Elena Charles family.  What tremendous honors.

Curda is not just the sum of her accomplishments, awards, publications, and resume. This strong, independent, and compassionate woman comes from a family of incredible women role models. Retired Lt. Col. Elizabeth Guild, (Aunt Betsy), the first woman to fly at supersonic speed, won accolades for her research into the effects jet engine noise had on hearing loss, a novel idea in her day.  Aunt Dot (Dorothy Weeks), a Guggenheim Fellow in 1949-50, physicist, educator and researcher for nearly sixty years, coordinated “a project that developed radiological shielding material for use against nuclear weapons…” Harriet G. Guild, a pediatrician and pioneer in the study of kidney disease, was one of the first women to be named to the City of Baltimore Women’s Hall of Fame. Curda’s dad taught her to smile, talk to strangers, and not be afraid. Instilled in her at an early age, Curda lives by the unwavering belief that one person can make a difference in the world. Her nature of nurturing has been there from the beginning, something inside of her. “I just came out that way,” she states. Curda believes in “leaning into tears and walking into problems,” traits that echo throughout the experiences of her life. From being a candy striper at 14 to helping build a cinder block school in rural Kenya at 19 to working as the only BSN on North Wing in the old Bethel hospital at 23, Curda has been a caregiver and humanitarian all of her life. Melding health care and education became the driving force behind the Community Health Aide/Practitioner (CHA/P) program which Curda has been involved with since 1980. “I’ve been lucky enough to have found purpose,” she says. Curda’s motivation is to craft quality health care that a person will be able to do in the village and save someone’s life.

When Curda is not teaching, volunteering, mothering, administering, or helping friends, you can find her fishing on the Kuskokwim River, one of her true passions. I heard her say not long ago that she hopes to be subsistence fishing on the Kusko until she’s 90. She shares her catch as easily as she shares her time and energy. Of her life on the Delta, Curda says in an interview in 2005, “The Delta has taught me so much and the culture is what keeps me really — the Health Aide Program is certainly just an element of it, but the Yup’ik culture where the words cooperation and sharing and family and community, they are not words, it’s the fabric of life there.  It’s the — it’s — they are real and meaningful terms that you live every day.” New interests include gardening and berry picking, both connections to the land.

Last but far from least, Curda and her husband, Dale, have 2 children and 4 grandchildren. Their oldest child is Megan Carle, a teacher living in Hawaii, who has 3 children, Maya, Jaren, and Sydney. Ryan, their son, a chiropractor, resides in San Diego, CA, with his wife, Lindsey, and 6-month-old daughter Sophia.  Nothing warms a grandmother’s heart more than a brand-new grandbaby. 

Bethel is like a character in Curda’s life, a place where friends, tradition, culture, and nature weave themselves together. Her words to live by are “walk gently on the earth, be kind to everyone, and tell those that you love that you love them.”

So, in the end, yes. The answer is yes.

Linda R. G. Curda

Curriculum Vitae

EDUCATION:

• 1975-1977 Masters of Public Health (MPH), Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM),The Johns Hopkins University, School of Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland
• 1967-1971 Bachelor of Science Degree, Nursing (BSN), University of Maryland, School of Nursing, Baltimore, Maryland
• 1967 Graduate, Bethesda Chevy Chase High School

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

2018-presentActing Director, UAF Kuskokwim Campus

2000-present Associate Professor. Community Health UAF CHAP Academic Liaison College of Rural and Community Development, UAF Health Programs. Anchorage office (assigned to Kuskokwim Campus 2010)

2011-2015 University of Alaska CHAP Denali Grant, Manager

Fall 2013 Visiting Professor and Health Provider.

South Sudan Medical Project – Old Fangak.

During a five week stay worked in the clinic under the direction of Dr. Jill Seaman providing patient care: wound management; prenatal and post-partum care; immunizations. Taught her clinic staff respiratory system anatomy and physiology; basic math skills; biology subjects. Gave a workshop for the traditional birth attendants in labor and delivery focusing on prevention and treatment of post-delivery hemorrhage.

Fall ’03-Sp ’04 Sabbatical: Project Leader of statewide committee: Revision of the Alaska Community Health Aide/Practitioner Manual (CHAM). The scope of the project encompassed producing four cross-referenced volumes, with an accompanying CD-ROM to provide printed patient education handouts and video clips of physical exam techniques. The CHAM provides standard of care guidelines for over five hundred Community Health Aides and Practitioners in the 178 village clinics serving Alaska Natives. It is the vital reference document for over 300,000 patient encounters each year in rural villages. It serves as the foundation for statewide program standardization and quality assurance. The CHAM is also the primary text for the UAF Community Health basic courses (CHP 131-135) and 200-level coursework.

1993-present University of Alaska Fairbanks – Community Health Aide/Practitioner (CHA/P) Program Academic Liaison.

1993-June 2000 Assistant Professor, Community Health

College of Rural Alaska, UAF. Kuskokwim Campus, Bethel, Alaska

1994-1998 C.A.L.L. Project Director, ”Computer Assisted Learning Lessons for CHA/Ps- The Body Systems and Patient Care”. 3-year Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant to create interactive self-paced units for each body system that include anatomy, physiology, physical exam, disease management, quizzes and dictionary. Grant writer and manager.

1995-1996 Coordinator and Faculty for Community Health Practitioner

Training for Red Crescent Society Paramedic staff, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

1982-1992 Director and Instructor

Community Health Aide/Practitioner Training Program,

KCC; 1988 – Kuskokwim Campus, UAF, Bethel, Alaska.

1980-1982 Instructor, Community Health Aide/Practitioner Training Program, Kuskokwim Community College (KCC), Bethel, Alaska.

1977-1980 Instructor, Nurse Midwifery Program

Maternal and Child Health Department

The Johns Hopkins University

School of Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland.

1978-1979 Family Planning, Minor Gynecology Clinician 

Planned Parenthood Association. Baltimore, Md. Part-time.

Summer 1976 Parent Education Classes

The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Md.

1974-1975 Head Nurse, Obstetrical Department

Public Health Service Hospital, Bethel, Alaska.

1972-1974 Staff Nurse: Adult & Pediatric Wards

Public Health Service Hospital, Bethel, Alaska.

1971-1972 Office/Staff Nurse

Group Health Association, Washington, D.C.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES:

2016 CRCD Action Planning Committee – faculty representative. Spring semester. 

2008-2018 CRCD Academic Council, Chair 2008-Fall ’12 &‘16-’18; Past Chair ‘12-‘13

2010-2012 Community Health, Program Head

2012-2013 Indigenous, Community and Tribal Programs Department, Chair 

2013-present Member of the Indigenous, Community and Tribal Programs Department

2003-2010 CRCD Community Health Division, Chair

2014-present Member of statewide Community Health Aide/Practitioner Manual Revision Committee. Editing and revising of electronic CHAM.

1981-present Academic Review Committee (ARC) for the Community Health Aide Training Programs of Alaska, UAF Representative Chairperson (1986 – 1990; 2008-2010); Vice Chair (1984 – 1986) 

ARC Curriculum Sub-Committees:

– Published Basic Training Curriculum (UAF course series 131-135) 1984; Major revision 1993, minor revision 1996; 1997.

– Published Pre-Session I Curriculum and Workbook. 1999

– CHAM Revision Subcommittee. Fall 1995.

1998-2010 Coordinated the statewide CHAP faculty Convocation; 4+ day meetings regarding Training Center and Field instruction and program standards.

2000-2011 CHAM/VRM Committee Chair (this is a subcommittee of CHAP Directors responsible for writing/editing CHA/P standard of practice protocols, procedures). Published Alaska Community Health Aide/Practitioner Manual (CHAM) 2006.

2002-2003 Chaired Promotion and Tenure UAF Committee for College of Rural Alaska faculty.

2002 University of Alaska/Industry Nursing Education Task Force 

1993-2018 Kuskokwim Campus Faculty Council member

1996-1998; 2000-2003     Faculty Chair

1995-2003 University of Alaska Fairbanks Faculty Senate Representative 

Member of Faculty Development, Assessment and Improvement Committee of Faculty Senate

1996-2003 College of Rural Alaska, UAF

Health Technology/Community Health/Allied Health, Division Chair

CRA Faculty Council, CRA Curriculum Council

June 1999 Telemedicine Project Trainer with clinic staff in Savoonga, Alaska.

1998-2003 KuC member to the Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation, Lower

Kuskokwim School District and KuC Health Careers Pathway committee.

1996-1998 Steering Committee member for new edition of the Community Health Aide/Practitioner Manual (CHAM), 1998.

Aug 13-1, 1996 Primary Care and EMS – Review of Mobile Urgent Care.

Site visit and presentation. Phoenix Fire Department, Arizona.

1994-1997 Project Coordinator and Editor, Village Medicine Reference for Community Health Aides/Practitioners, 1997.

1994-1995 Member of the “Health Curriculum Development Team” for KuC and Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation.

1989-1990 Review and Approval Committee (RAC) member.

Established standards and guidelines for the evaluation of CHAP Training Centers.

1983-1987 Contributing Editor and member of the Editorial Committee for Community Health Aide/Practitioner Manual, 1987.

1982-1985 Alaska Consortium For Training & Education In Aging

1979-1980 Legislation Committee, Maryland Chapter VI

American College of Nurse-Midwives 

1979 Faculty, Newborn Resuscitation Workshop

American College of Nurse-Midwives Convention

1978 Faculty, Physical Assessment Workshop

American College of Nurse-Midwives Convention

1976 “Partners For Health” Workshop Committee Member

  American College of Nurse-Midwives, Chapter VI

PRESENTATIONS:

“CHAM and Curriculum Alignment” and “CHA Basic Training Curriculum – Tips for Field Instructors” at the CHAP Instructor Convocation October 14, 2013, Anchorage, Alaska.

“Reflections on Changes for the Next Curriculum and CHAM” at the CHAP Instructor Convocation October 22, 2010, Anchorage, Alaska.

Faculty Development Workshop, to Instructors of the Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation CHAP Training Center in Bethel. February 15-19, 2010. Provided review and facilitated consistency of the Training Center’s basic training curriculum objectives and lesson plans, instructional materials, and teaching methods.  Also produced, with the faculty team, several tools to help focus and guide lesson plan content, materials and language.

“CHAP: Competency Based Education and Skills Proficiency” at the CHAP Instructor Convocation October 13. 2009, Anchorage. Alaska. 

Faculty Development Workshop, to the YKHC CHAP Training Center in Bethel. Topics presented included: Being a CHAP Instructor; Adult Learning Theory; Mastery Learning – Competency Based education; Basic Training Curriculum and the CHAM; Review and Approval [of CHAP TC] Committee standards; Lesson Plans and Student Learning Units [materials]; Sharing Teaching Tips; CATs – Classroom Assessment Techniques; and Clinical experience. March 3-5, 2009

“CHAP Instructor Convocation”. Coordinator of planning committee; facilitator and presenter: October 13-17, 2008, Anchorage, Alaska.

“CHAP Instructors Convocation”. Coordinator of planning committee; facilitator and presenter: January 7-11, 2002, Anchorage and Wasilla, Alaska.

“CHAP Instructors Convocation”. Coordinator of planning committee; facilitator and presenter: “Distance Education”; and, “Math for CHA/Ps”. August 30-Sept. 3, 1999, Anchorage. Alaska.

Regional Public Health Nurses, presentations (1985-present):

– “Pregnancy, Prenatal Care and Complications” – 12-hour class; with clinical experience    at Prematernal Home.

– “Pelvic Exam and lab tests”- 4-hour class; with practice as needed by PHN.

– “Emergency Labor and Delivery”- 4-hour class.

“CHA/P and the Associate of Applied Science degree”. Regional Health Corporation site visit, presentation and student audio-conferences.

“Rural Health and Education in Alaska” panel member for the Department of Alaska Native and Rural Development, UAF Traditional Healing and Rural Health Seminar December 7, 1998, Anchorage. Alaska.

“Community Health Aide Program Forum 1996”. Forum planning committee and presenter “Continuing Education” ApriI 22-26, 1996, Anchorage, Alaska.

“Primary Care – The Community Health Aide/Practitioner Program”. MedTrans Clinical Conference on Prehospital Medicine, Sept. 18-20, 1994, Chicago, Illinois.

“Primary Care – The Community Health Aide/Practitioner Program”. American Ambulance Association, Aug 23-25 1994, Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

“Alaskan Community Health Aide/Practitioner Program” Day workshop and two summary presentations; EMS Primary Care Conference and Summit-The Sand Key Conference, March 1994 Florida.

“Community Health Aide Program Forum 1993” Forum planning committee and presenter “C.A.L.L. Project – the concept” April 26-30, 1993 Anchorage, Alaska.

“4th Annual Community Health Aide Program Instructor Forum”. Forum organizer, moderator and presenter, September 1987 Anchorage, Alaska.

“3rd Annual Community Health Aide Program Forum”. Forum organizer, moderator and presenter “Pre-Session 1 Curriculum and Workbook” September 1986, Anchorage. Alaska.

“2^nd Annual Open Forum for CHA Instructors & Supervisors. Forum organizer, moderator and presenter “Creating a Positive Learning Environment” September 1985.

“Helping CHAs Learn – Practical Strategies” First Statewide Forum for faculty and staff working with Community Health Aides/Practitioners; Forum organizer, moderator & presenter, September 1984, Anchorage, Alaska.

“Critical Issues of the Pregnant and Delivering Patient” Three day Workshop sponsored by the State of Alaska’s Improved Pregnancy Outcome Project, July 1982, Anchorage, Alaska.

“Complications & Interventions of Labor & Delivery”. 6-hour presentation for the medical and nursing staff at the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta Regional Hospital February 1984, Bethel, Alaska

“Obstetrical Nursing Care In Rural Alaska” NACOG, Alaska Chapter Workshop, 1975 Anchorage, Alaska.

PUBLICATIONS:

Community Health Aide Basic Training Curriculum June 2010. Managing editor, Curda, L. ANTHC, Anchorage, Alaska.

Alaska Community Health Aide/Practitioner Manual. 2006 edition. Curda, Linda, Project Leader and Managing Editor (4 volume set, with CD-ROM).

1)  CHAM: Emergency Field Handbook – new component (126 pages).

2)  CHAM: Patient Care Visit (766 pages).

3)  CHAM: Medicine Handbook -combines VMR with current ’98 CHAM Medicine booklet. New format with patient education information for each medicine (436 pages).

4) CHAM: Reference and Procedures (356 pages).

5) CD-ROM, includes navigation between all four books and individual print function of the

patient education materials, which accompany each medical diagnosis and corresponding

medicine.

Curda, Linda R.Q. Illustrated Human Anatomy, Function and Medical Language: Text – Workbook. 3rd edition July 2002, Bethel, Alaska.

Curda, Linda R.G. Illustrated Human Anatomy, Function and Medical Language: Text – Workbook. 2nd edition January 2002, Bethel. Alaska.

Editor and subcommittee member Community Health Aide Program Update 2001 Alaska’s Rural Health Care at Risk, May 2001. Presented to Alaska Native Health Board and Association of Tribal Health Directors for congressional (federal) funding increase for CHAP.

Curda, Linda R.G. Illustrated Human Anatomy, Function and Medical Language: Workbook, November, 1998, Bethel, Alaska.

Expert reviewer, Medical Terminology Made Easy 2nd edition by Jean Tannis Dennerll, Delmar Publishers, Albany, New York, 1998.

Editor, Village Medicine Reference for Community Health Aides/Practitioners, 1997, Alaska Area Native Health Service. Anchorage, Alaska.

Editor. Village Drug Reference for Community Health Aides/Practitioners, 1988. Alaska Area Native Health Service. Anchorage, Alaska.

Editor, CHAP ln Crjsis, 1988. Descriptive position paper used to inform U.S. Congress which successfully increased federal funding for the Community Health Aide Program throughout Alaska.

Contributing Editor, Community Health Aide/Practjtioner Manual (CHAM). 1987. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Alaska Area Native Health Service.

Caldera, Debra and Linda Curda Pre-Session 1 Handbook for Community Health Aides. Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation, 1985.

Fisher, Quentin, Michael Cohen, Linda Curda and Helen McNamara, “Jaundice and Breast-Feeding Among Alaskan Eskimo Newborns, American Journal of Diseases of Children, Vol. 132, pp. 859-61, September, 1978.

Curda, Linda R, Guild, “What About Pica?” Journal of Nurse-Midwifery. 22: 7-11, Spring, 1977.

MEMBERSHIPS:

American Public Health Association

COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES:

2008-present Alaska Sudan Medical Project, member

1990-present Cama-i Dance Festival Coordinator (annual event in Bethel)

1987-2005Bethel Council on the Arts, Board Member

President 1990-1991; 1996-1998

1988-1999 Bethel High School Drama Productions – Stage Manager 

1990-1997       Bethel Actors Guild – Stage manager for various productions.

Cast member in “Tribute”, May 1993.

1995-1996 Assisted with annual fund raiser for KYUK radio & TV station. 

1992 Assisted with organizing a local Parents/Teacher Association

Kilbuck School, Bethel.

1985-1987 Bethel Advisory School Board

Chairperson 1986 – 1987; Vice Chairperson 1985 – 1986

1986-1987 Bethel Ballet Production – Performances Coordinator

1985-1987 Brownie Girl Scout Leader

1980-1984 IHS Hospital Auxiliary (Hospital now Y K Delta Regional Hospital)

Honors/Awards:

1994 Governor’s Arts Award, Individual Most Supportive of the Arts

2002 Bill Bivin Memorial Award, presented by the Bethel Chamber of Commerce in memory of Bill Bivin:” For distinguished service over the past decade through her dedication to the growth and spirit of the Cama-i Festival and the cultural heritage of the region.”

2006 Indian Health Service Directors’ Award for the Alaska Community Health Aide/Practitioner Manual, 2006.

CHAP Instructor Convocation 2010, Recognition and Achievement Award: Presented with tremendous appreciation and gratitude to Linda Curda for 30 years of tireless, passionate dedication to the Community Health Aide Program

Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation Certificate of Appreciation for 30 Years

2016 Nominee, First Lady’s Volunteer of the Year Award

2017 30^th Alaska Legislature Citation to coordinators Linda Curda, Carol Ann Willard and the Bethel Council on the Arts “for their extraordinary work on this momentous annual occasion” – the Cama-i Dance Festival

Other sources:

Community Health Aides Program Project Jukebox. A history of the Community Health Aide Program from its inception, with extensive interviews of important figures, including Linda Curda   http://jukebox.uaf.edu/CHA/htm/lcurdatrans2_15.htm

http://jukebox.uaf.edu/CHA/htm/lcurda.htm

South Sudan Medical Relief Clinic https://deltadiscovery.com/thirty-years-in-south-sudan-the-bethel-bond/

The Delta Discovery, April 4, 2001. An Interview by Ted Horner with Linda Curda about 21 years on the Delta and the Cama-i Festival. Unable to locate on the web. Unable to attach article to submission.

Jaundice and Breast-Feeding Among Alaskan Eskimo Newborns

Quentin Fisher, MD; Michael I. Cohen, MD; Linda Curda, CNM, MPH; et al Helen McNamara, MA  September 1978, peer reviewed https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/508099

Journal of Nurse-Midwifery. “What about Pica.” Written while attending graduate school at John Hopkins   https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/508099

Denali report for CHAP, April-June, 2013   https://cf.denali.gov/Data/attachments/1255%20D%20CHAP%20report%20April-June%202013.pdf

https://www.heraldnet.com/news/dance-diva-maryann-sundown-dies-at-93-2/