Faculty, Staff & Students
Bonnie Duran, DrPH (Opelousas/Coushatta)
Director, IWRI Center for Indigenous Health Research (ret'd)
Professor, School of Social Work, University of Washington (ret'd)
Bonnie Duran has worked in public health education, evaluation, program planning and research with Native Americans and other communities of color for 35 years. For the past 10 years, she has been studying the prevalence of mental disorders, victimization risk factors and treatment of Native American women who use Indian Health Service primary care facilities as well as men and women who live in rural reservation communities. Her work focuses on designing treatment and prevention efforts that are empowering, culture-centered, effective and sustainable, with maximum public health impact.
In addition to being a professor at the School of Social Work, she is also director of the Center for Indigenous Health Research, which is a part of the Indigenous Wellness Research Institute. Before joining the faculty in 2007, Dr. Duran was an associate professor at the University of New Mexico’s Department of Family and Community Medicine. She also served as director for research at UNM’s Center for Native American Health and was an associate director at the Southwest Addictions Research Group. She earned a doctorate and a master’s degree in public health education from the University of California at Berkeley, and a bachelor of arts in health education from San Francisco State University.
A descendant of the Opelousas/Coushatta tribe, Dr. Duran has written extensively on issues affecting Native Americans and other minority communities, and is the author of several books. In 2006, she received an award from the Society for Public Health Education for the best paper of the year. She is also a multiple recipient of the Dean’s Award of Distinction-Outstanding Faculty Performance from the University of New Mexico’s School of Medicine.
Dr. Duran is a founding member of the International Network for Indigenous Health Knowledge and Development, an international assembly dedicated to improving the health of indigenous peoples in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. She is also a member of the American Public Health Association, Society for Public Health, and the International Union of Health Promotion and Education. For nearly 20 years, she has served on the editorial board of Critical Public Health. Since 2006, she has been on the editorial board of Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education & Action.
