By Kalvin Valdillez, Tulalip News
On the morning of September 20th, during the annual ATNI conference at the Tulalip Resort Casino, the Tulalip Tribes received the 2022 TERO Program of the Year award from the Council for Tribal Employment Rights. With big smiles, the TERO staff accepted the award for their outstanding leadership and commitment for their tribe and membership.
“Leadership comes from the training in your past leadership,” said TERO Director, Tory Chuckulnaskit. “I’ve had good teachers. I had Teri, and Teri had Conrad who was a founding father of TERO. I want to acknowledge my staff, Lisa who’s with our school, Jared who is also with the school, Loretta and Hannah are with compliance. And we have Robert Henderson our manager, and Kesha who are not here today.”
Tulalip Chairwoman Teri Gobin added, “I wanted to say a few words because TERO has always been my baby. I was in the TERO program for 19 years; I was the director. We’ve grown immensely and one of the big portions that’s been a success in our TERO has been the school. All of these TERO people are involved in recruiting for our school – our TERO Vocational Training Center, that’s construction. We offer it to any Native that wants to come here, free of charge, to take a four-month course and have open access and direct entry in many of the trades. It’s made a difference in so many people’s lives. And not only their lives, their families’ lives, their children’s lives. I’m really proud of where our TERO program is going. They’re always looking at new opportunities to bring forward, new trainings that they can bring to the people. We’ve had people come from all over the United States to take trainings here. I’m really proud of this team.”