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| Affiliation | Democratic |
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2011-01-01 |
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| Name | Debra Chesnut |
| Address |
Fairbanks, Alaska , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | [Link] |
| Born |
Unknown
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| Contributor | eddy 9_99 |
| Last Modifed | ev
Sep 01, 2012 06:59pm |
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| Info | Debra Chesnut was raised in Anchorage and Flathorn Lake where her family homesteaded on one of the last homesteads allowed under the Federal Homestead Act. Everyday her father had to fly to work in Anchorage. Nature was her constant companion and profoundly influenced her life. While living at Flathorn Lake she and her three siblings took the Alaska State Calvert correspondence school courses that were offered out of Juneau. While in Anchorage she attended Nunaka Valley elementary school, Orah Dee Clark/Wendler Junior High schools, and East Anchorage High School.
At the age of 16 she learned to fly as a gift from her father who loved to fly. Unfortunately she had to quit flying until many years later when she flew once again.
She graduated from Nursing School at the University of Alaska in Anchorage in 1976 Magna Cum Laude and received her RN. She worked in a variety of places as a nurse around Alaska; Palmer, Nome, Barrow, Anchorage, Fairbanks and the world; Brazil, Thailand, Israel, Siberia, South Africa and Nicaragua, mostly as a volunteer. She received a BS in Psychology, graduating Magna Cum Laude at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks 1989. She earned an MA in Western Esotericism with Merit from Exeter University, Exeter, England in 2008.
In the mid-70’s she commercially long-line fished with her parents out of Sitka on their halibut boat The Oriole, which paid for her tuition to attend Nursing School in Anchorage. When she graduated she worked briefly at the Palmer Community Hospital, then went to Nome and worked at the Maynard McDougal Memorial Hospital and fell in love with the Northwest of Alaska. From there she worked with a non-profit on the Amazon River in Brazil for two years. After leaving the Amazon she volunteered with Catholic Relief Services in a Cambodian refugee camp in Thailand where she met her future husband, Dr. Dennis Dussman, a local dentist in Fairbanks, Alaska. Upon returning to Alaska with him in tow, they worked at the Salvation Army Clitheroe Detox center until he obtained a position with the Indian Health Services as a Ltd in the Navy and was sent to Barrow, Alaska. Debra worked for the North Slope Borough as the school nurse at the Ipalook elementary school for two years while her husband ran the dental clinic. At the end of his rotation in Barrow they decided to settle in Fairbanks where he opened a private practice with Debra as the Accounts Manager. She is currently a business owner of Cup of Gold Espresso, a drive-thru coffee hut in the Goldstream Valley near Fairbanks.
They spent many years traveling to different villages such as Fort Yukon, Noatak, Selawik, Northway, Tetlin, Dot Lake, Tanacross and Tok to name a few, to provide dental services to the Native people through contracts with the Native Health Corporations.
In 1993 she founded The Four Winds Foundation, a small non-profit organization dedicated to promoting shamanic and traditional wisdom. Through the Foundation she has donated countless hours and money to helping the greater communities of Fairbanks, Alaska and the World.
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