Rand West

Iina’ Counseling Services

Randolph.West@ihs.gov

Rand West’s early childhood was in Oklahoma where his parents were neighbors and friends of the Kiowa and Comanche Tribes. He attended College at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and then Ohio State University where he received his Masters of Science degree in terrestrial ecology. Dr. West worked for 17 years with the US Forest Service. In 1995, Dr. West left the US Forest Service to enter a doctoral Clinical Psychology Program at Antioch University. His dissertation, “American Indian experience of place: Relationship to distress,” was a study of the importance of native places to resilience from trauma among Native Americans. After graduating, Dr. West was the Trauma Resources Coordinator for a four-county consortium in New York State, where he taught trauma treatment to providers, provided clinical supervision and carried his own case load of patients.  Two years later, he and his family returned to Alaska where he was Treatment Supervisor for a Native American adolescent residential treatment program, Tele-mental Health Coordinator, and finally Director of the Mental Health Department at Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium, a 638 Native Health organization.   In 2012 he accepted the position of Mental Health Director at Northern Navajo Medical Center where he works today providing and directing treatment.