Pilot

Staff Spotlight

Katharine Pilot, Clinical Operations Coordinator

By Meghan Erkkinen

Katharine Pilot loves working for the Puyallup Tribe. In her eight years working for the Puyallup Tribal Health Authority (PTHA), she feels like she has done a lot of good.

As a chemical dependency professional, Katharine Pilot sees a lot of people who have hit rock bottom – those with drug and alcohol addictions so strong that many may give up on those individuals. But she does not, and by not giving up, she reaps tremendous rewards.

“When people come up at powwows and are still clean and sober, it’s a good feeling,” she said.

Katharine Pilot recently got a new job as the clinical operations coordinator, whereas before she ran the outpatient services at the PTHA Treatment Center. In her new position, Katharine Pilot finds she is doing a lot more filing and dealing with stringent deadlines. Much of her work includes attending meetings or answering calls from Tribal members who need referrals.

“So far it’s good,” she said. “I love working here…No matter what job I’ve had I loved it.”

Katharine Pilot grew up in Missouri, where she was raised among Native populations. She came to Washington for the first time in 1970, when she had her first child.

“I fell in love with it out here so much that in 1980 I came out here and have been here ever since,” she said.

She has two daughters, one of whom is in Germany and the other is attending The Evergreen State College. In her free time, she enjoys gardening and grooming her Maltese. She has been active in the Puyallup Tribal community for about 20 years, and was inspired to become a counselor by a friend, who was also a counselor at PTHA. Since day one, Katharine Pilot said she has loved the job.

“I would be so heartbroken if I had to go somewhere else,” she said.

More than anything else, she said she loves the way the Tribe approaches healing.

“We believe in healing the whole self, not just part of the self,” she said. “I like the open-mindedness…Above all, I like that we can bring spirituality into it.”

And even though her job poses significant challenges – attending the funerals of so many young people who died due to drugs or alcohol chief among them – she feels the community is making progress.

“I think what we do in the community is really effective,” she said. “It’s not 100 percent effective, but what I see is education happening…I see progression that way.”

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