BY KAREN BOSSICK
One of the first Dreamers in Ken Lewis’s I Have a Dream Foundation will share how she overcame adversity to become a doctor bound for a professorship at Harvard University next week.
Dr. Alisha Moreland-Capuia, who was made a Dreamer Scholar 25 years ago in Portland, Ore., will speak at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 5, at Ketchum’s Community Library.
She will also address Wood River High School students about overcoming adversity and the power and importance of education at 9:44 a.m. Wednesday, March 4, and 10:06 a.m. Thursday, March 5. Both presentations will be held at the Wood River High School Performing Arts Theater at Hailey’s Community Campus.
Dr. Alisha Moreland-Capuia was in the first I Have a Dream Foundation class started by Ken Lewis, who divides his time between Portland, Ore., and Sun Valley.
Lewis started a new chapter in Idaho several years ago, providing a group of third-grade students at what is now Alturas Elementary with academic, social and emotional support through high school with the promise of guaranteed college tuition support.
That group is now in the tenth grade and I Have a Dream Foundation-Idaho is getting ready to adopt another group of students in a year.
Moreland-Capuia faced adversity as a child but, with support from I Have a Dream Foundation-Oregon, received a scholarship to Stanford University. She went on to George Washington University School of Medicine and completed four years of training in psychiatry, in addition to a fellowship in addiction medicine, at Oregon Health Sciences University.
She will embark on a new life as associate professor at Harvard University this spring. And she will also take on a new role as director of the Program for Culturally and Trauma-Informed Community Outreach within the Division of Depression and Anxiety.
She is the author of “Training for Change: Transforming Systems to be Trauma-Informed, Culturally Responsive and Neuroscientifically Focused.” She also is a commissioner for Prosper Portland, serves on the board of the Oregon Historical Society, is an appointee to the Oregon Health Policy Board Healthcare Workforce Committee and a former appointee to the governor’s Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse programs.
She co-founded The Capuia Foundation to build a sustainable economy through healthcare, education and agriculture in Angola.
“Alisha had a tough background. But her story is a reminder to us about the power of education in our children’s lives and that there are paths to overcoming adversity,” said Laura Rose-Lewis, the new executive director of I Have a Dream Foundation-Idaho.
Moreland-Capuia is also meeting with the parents of children enrolled in I Have a Dream Foundation-Idaho while here. The program is based on the belief that all children can realize their innate potential given equal access to resources.