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TAHLEQUAH, OK - Randall Hicks, a transportation/training coordinator for the Cherokee Nation’s Early Childhood Unit, attended the National Indian Health Board’s (NIHB) 18th Annual Consumer Conference in Billings, Mont., this past summer.

Hicks attended workshops that were designed to provide tribal representatives an opportunity to exchange information about the environmental and health issues of lead-based paint, lead blood level screening, soil and water contamination and other hazards associated with lead poisoning.

At the end of the workshops, the group came together to discuss strategies for dealing with these issues at the local and national level with federal agency representatives.

Hicks received a stipend from the NHIB to attend the conference. Eligibility for the stipend required a participant be from a tribal environmental health or programs working with children in American Indian and Alaska Native Communities.

Hicks has worked at Cherokee Nation’s Early Childhood Unit for nearly five years. He oversees all the transportation needs of ECU. He also participates in community activities such as the Youth and Elder Camp, Alternative Spring Break, Children’s Games during the Cherokee National Holiday and Health and Safety Fairs.

Hicks is certified to teach CPR/First Aide, Car Seat Safety, Defensive Driving and Bus Drivers Training, and is a certified Designated Driver Examiner, which allows him to give drive tests to those who are applying for their Commercial Drivers License (CDL). Hicks is also certified by the Cherokee Nation EMS as a First Responder. Hicks and his family reside Muskogee.