Pam was elected to the Shee Atiká board in June 2007 and currently serves as Vice-Chairman. Prior to becoming a board member she served for 5 years as a member of the Shee Atiká Benefits Trust Scholarship Committee. Pam has served as a member of the Sitka Native Education Program Parent Committee and on the Sitka Tribe of Alaska Education Committee. Dr. Steffes’ term will come up for re-election in 2013; she was elected to Vice-Chairman in 2009.
Since 1999 she has been employed at SEARHC Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital as the Eye Clinic Manager/Optometrist and she has expanded the program to improve eye care services in Southeast Alaska. In 2010 she went to Nicaragua on her seventh eye care mission to help those without access to eye care. Locally she is a member and past president of the Sitka Rotary Club.
Pam holds a Doctor of Optometry degree from Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon and is a Fellow in the American Academy of Optometry. She holds her Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado.
A Raven, T’akdeintaan, of the Snail House in Hoonah, she is the granddaughter of the late Frank O. Williams, Sr. and the daughter of Gene and Adeline Burton of Sitka. She and her husband Scott are the proud parents of Haylee, age 11 and Delainey, age 8.