There’s nowhere quite like Sitka, located on a series of islands in Alaska’s panhandle.
Just 14 miles of paved road wind along the main island’s perimeter, skirting numerous bays and channels on one side and the mountainous Tongass National Forest on the other. Sitka is both expansive and small; it is one of the largest incorporated places in the United States, at 4,811 square miles, and home to only 8,647 people.
Isolated and bound together by geography, the community has recognized that the only way to ensure better health for all is to move forward collectively, across cultures and sectors. To that end, a dozen years ago, partners formed the Sitka Health Summit. They came from local nonprofits and the community’s two health care providers—Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC), the region’s tribal health organization, and city-owned Sitka Community Hospital—which merged this year.