Community connector: Economic development director aligns tribal priorities with local needs

For David Hill, working for the Coquille Indian Tribe feels like coming full circle. 

A Coquille tribal citizen, Hill grew up attending the tribe’s culture camps and learning from tribal elders in Coos Bay. In 2004, the tribe gave Hill, who is from rural Douglas County, a scholarship to attend the University of Oregon, where he was a family and human services major and a cheerleader. 

“I wouldn’t be here without the tribe, and so I knew I wanted to give back,” Hill told Lookout Eugene-Springfield. 

After college, he worked as a corporate sales manager for what was then InnSight Hotel Management Group, now Mereté Hotel Management. In 2022, he took part in the year-long Leadership Eugene Springfield development program run by the Eugene Area and Springfield Area chambers of commerce. As part of the program, he was required to complete a “personal adventure.”

With that desire to give back to the tribe, he reached out to the chief executive officer of Tribal One, the business and economic development arm of the Coquille Indian Tribe, to see if there was something meaningful he could do. 

Using the connections he’d made in Eugene and Springfield and the relationships he had with the tribe, Hill organized an open house at the tribe’s newly opened Ko-Kwel Wellness Center in Eugene, inviting local elected officials and community leaders to visit the clinic to meet the tribal council and chief and learn about the tribe’s healthcare services and cultural values.

“I always knew I wanted to work for my tribe,” he said, and that event got his foot in the door. 

In 2023, Hill was hired as the director of economic development for Lane County operations for Tribal One, serving as a liaison within the community to build partnerships that support economic growth.

“That’s where I’ve used my connector skill set to just be able to help foster government-to-government relations with the local cities and the county and our tribal council … Looking at where are there shared priorities and alignment for the tribe or gaps for the tribe to come in and offer to help fill some of those supports,” said Hill, who is on the board of directors for the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce and was a recipient of the chamber’s 2025 Emerging Leader award earlier this year.

Healthcare was a natural fit at the time the tribe opened the clinic in 2021, given the high wait times to see providers, he said.

What is the Ko-Kwel Wellness Center? 

The River Road clinic is Coquille Indian Tribe’s second Ko-Kwel Wellness Center; the first is in Coos Bay.

Lane County is home to the second largest population of Coquille Tribal members in Oregon, outside of Coos County, and also has the second largest indigenous population in the state, outside of Multnomah County, for American Indian and Alaska Natives, Hill said. 

“There was a need for our own tribal members, but also the American and Alaska Native population of Lane County being the second highest population, and there being a gap in Indigenous tribal cultural holistic care for tribal members, both Coquille and otherwise, and for the whole community,” he said. 

The clinic offers primary care, behavioral health care and a new opioid treatment program, serving Coquille tribal families, other American Indians and Alaska Natives, tribal employees and the general public as capacity allows.

Any American Indian Alaska Native member of a federally recognized tribe can receive care from the clinic with no out-of-pocket expenses, Hill said. 

“And we also, because of the availability in this area, have opened it up to all the whole community as capacity allows,” he said. “Particularly with Medicaid and some of the constraints coming recently, this is a great option with availability that we can get you in, we can get you what you need, and that’s just been a wonderful asset for the community, for the city, for the county, and where the tribe was able to come in and be a great partner in providing these services.”

Last year, the clinic opened the first tribally owned, fully integrated opioid treatment program in the state, Hill said, which the tribe had been discussing for some time given the disproportionate rates of opioid use and overdose fatalities among American Indian and Alaska Natives.

The program is in the same building as the primary care clinic, providing for referrals among the healthcare services. The treatment program offers counseling and medication-assisted therapy, and a peer supervisor is creating an Indigenous treatment recovery curriculum called “Walking in Balance” that incorporates Coquille tribal values and cultural teachings, Hill said.

“Having this integrated model really is a cutting-edge practice of how we’re approaching opioid use disorder, and breaking down barriers of stigma and bias, and just saying there’s no wrong door to treatment,” Hill said. 

The wellness center is also a pick-up site for Food for Lane County’s Trillium Produce Plus program, providing access to free fresh produce. 

“Having a resource hub, if you will, for all of these healthcare services all under one roof with a team that’s working together, integrated through warm handoffs, it’s a good thing to help people improve their lives,” said Hill, who coordinates tours of the clinics with community organizations to raise awareness of its services and identify opportunities for collaboration.  

What is Tribal One?

Tribal One, which is owned by the Coquille Indian Tribe, pursues federal contracts in construction, architecture and engineering and reinvests revenue into tribal programs and services, such as health and wellness, Hill said. 

The organization is also rehabilitating Ko’ Kwel Wharf in Coos Bay for economic development. Currently, it’s partnering with a company that exports wood pellets into international markets through the Port of Coos Bay, with more potential opportunities as Tribal One continues to rehabilitate the structure, he said.