Jessica Saniġaq Ullrich

Jessica Saniġaq Ullrich is an Inupiaq scholar, a tribal citizen of Nome Eskimo Community, a descendant of the Native Village of Wales and proud mother of 2 teenage daughters. Jessica worked in the Alaska child welfare system as a family services worker, ICWA Specialist, developed and supervised the first Alaska Native Family Services unit in Alaska, and became a child welfare trainer before obtaining her PhD in Social Welfare. Jessica’s passion and scholarship has centered on different aspects of an Indigenous Connectedness Framework for child and collective wellbeing.  As an Assistant Professor at Washington State University, and as a research consultant through Indigenous Connectedness Consulting, she focuses on the promotion of connectedness, wellbeing, relational healing, and social and environmental justice. Jessica is currently engaged in research that involves digital storytelling with Alaska Native youth, culturally based intervention development, Tribal child welfare prevention, youth engagement for systems change, language revitalization, and environmental connectedness for Inupiaq wellbeing. Storytelling and story-listening is central to her work.