Our Approach
Roberto founded Cultural Wisdom™ with his wife Tessa
As a Toltec Tribal member with a professional background as executive director of Rural, migrant, and Indian health organizations such as Pit River Health Services & Del Norte Clinics. He has a unique perspective on delivering culturally appropriate care in rural areas, drawing on his experience to bridge the gap in culturally appropriate communication. The philosophy of Cultural Wisdom is that culture is an essential factor for personal and collective well being. At Cultural Wisdom we celebrate life and honor our ancestors by keeping their stories alive.
Our Story
Tessa & Roberto met while providing health care via one of the first farm worker low cost clinic's in the central valley of California, Del Norte Clinics twenty five years ago. They both shared a passion to help the community and be of service. Now they are joined by their son Alexander Dansie and daughter Emily Dansie in the continuation of their journey to build healthy, resilient communities.
Meet The Dansie Team
Theresa "Tessa" Dansie
Co Founder Cultural Wisdom®
Stanford School of Medicine Health Equity Ambassador,
community health worker, rural farmworker health expert, community organizer, grant writer, intergenerational poverty expert, diversity and inclusion educator. Tessa assists non-profit organizations in grant writing, capacity building, and strategic planning. Health Equity Ambassadors are key community leaders, patient advocates, or representatives of community-based organizations working to improve health equity in under-resourced communities. As a Health Equity Ambassador she is trained to build academic-community relationships, matching Stanford researchers with community partners vested in addressing target community needs to effect translational research endeavors that will address health equity disparities.
Tessa directs all nonprofit endeavors of Cultural Wisdom, which seeks to impact community health in the areas experiencing the greatest disparities in the U.S., specifically rural farmworker health. One of those long-term projects includes The Pine Ridge Reservation outreach through Nebraska Minority Resource Center to create economic, spiritual, health equity, and education services. She has taught a Sweetgrass, Sage & Cedar Business Development program to include culinary arts, planting, harvesting, preparing sacred herbs/woods, preserving medicine foods such as choke cherries as a source of economic development and preservation of cultural traditions. Tessa has implemented Promotores De Salud programs (Promoters of Health Teams) to assist the community in accessing healthcare throughout the United States, particularly in the Central Valley of California.
Alexander Dansie
Community Resiliency Advocate
A graduate of Portland Community College Sylvania. Graduating with an Associates of General Studies and an Associates of Science, Alexander is committed to creating a culture of kindness and inclusion. He is a graduate of The Men Of Color Leadership Program at Portland Community College Sylvania. He assists Cultural Wisdom in building community through outreach classes such as "Yoga for Stress Management". He also assists Cultural Wisdom by grant writing for community resiliency to address health and education disparities. He works with Lakota Youth in Cultural Wisdom & Nebraska Minority Resource Center's, "Chunte Washake" "Strong Hearts" program to address native youth suicide prevention and community resiliency.
Emily Dansie
Executive Director of Community Engagement,
Stanford School of Medicine Health Equity Ambassador, Community Resiliency Advocate, Illustrator of the Bilingual Children's Book "Quetzalcoatl, the Eagle and the Serpent"
Emily assists Cultural Wisdom in building community through outreach classes on "Death, Culture, and Society". She also works with Cultural Wisdom by engaging youth for resiliency to address opening dialog around Terror Mangement Theory and positive ancestral wisdoms that impact our perceptions of death. She has lectured at Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla to rave reviews and a return request due to the popularity of her session.
She created a short video with her Abuelita in English with Spanish subtitles to explain Terror Management Theory using storytelling. She has researched extensively the works of Elizabeth Kuebler Ross, including her archives at Stanford University and spoken to members of her family to further understand her work.
She works with Lakota Youth in Cultural Wisdom & Nebraska Minority Resource Center's, "Chunte Washake" "Strong Hearts" program to address native youth suicide prevention and community resiliency. She often travels with her father on his speaking and community building work.
As a Health Equity Ambassador she is trained to build academic-community relationships, matching Stanford researchers with community partners vested in addressing target community needs to effect translational research endeavors that will address health equity disparities.
Next Steps...
Request a quote or free consultation.