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Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Member Carla Eben is the Numaga Senior Services Director at the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe in Nevada. Hired to the position in 2017, Carla was familiar with tribal operations, and hit the ground running. In 2017, she attended a two-part training on Dementia and Hoarding. The training was offered by the State of Nevada Aging Services. A few days later, Carla reached out to the University of Nevada Reno Sanford Center on Aging; working together, they began arranging training sessions to educate the elders, the community, and local departments.
In 2018, she applied for, and received the Dementia Friendly Nevada Grant- and so began the “Pesa Sooname” Advisory Group. Dementia Friendly Pyramid Lake is the only tribe ever to apply for and receive the Dementia Friendly America grant. Pesa Sooname means good thought or good think in Northern Paiute. The Advisory Group hosted several local trainings on Dementia. In August 2019-Pesa Sooname hosted the 1st Nevada Tribal Summit on Brain Health and Dementia drawing 113 attendees with 14 tribes represented. A second annual summit was held in April 2023.
The Numaga Senior Services Program operates under 12 different funding sources to support the needs of the Elders of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation. Carla has presented at several different conferences: National Indian Council on Aging in Sparks, Nevada, Intertribal Council of Nevada 50th Annual Conference in Reno, Nevada, National Title VI Technical Training in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and “Taking a Stand Against Elder Abuse” in Ft. Hall Idaho.
Carla is a Mother of three (four) and Grandmother to nine. Carla hopes to increase awareness of elder issues on her reservation, to the tribes across the western Great Basin, and across Indian Country. Planting the seeds of awareness, and now to watch them grow.