ISMART-Scientific Mentor Network
August 15, 2017
Nancy Rumbaugh Whitesell, PhD
Dr. Whitesell’s work focuses on child and adolescent development within the contexts of American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) communities. Her research projects apply developmental science to inform preventive interventions to improve outcomes for both young children (birth to five years) and young adolescents (10 to 14 years). Through her leadership role in the Tribal…
Joseph P. Gone, PhD
Joseph P. Gone, Ph.D. Associate Professor Department of Psychology University of Michigan Email: jgone@umich.edu
Ramona Beltrán, PhD, MSW (Chicana, Indigenous Mexican descent)
Ramona Beltrán’s Ramona Beltran, (Chicana, Indigenous Mexican descent) scholarship focuses on the intersections of historical trauma, embodiment, and environmental/social determinants of health as they affect health and risk behaviors in indigenous communities. She is particularly interested in centering cultural protective factors, strengths and resiliencies in indigenous populations as they work to interrupt the intergenerational transmission…
August 7, 2017
Jane Simoni, PhD
Dr. Jane M. Simoni assumed the role of NIH Associate Director for Behavioral and Social Sciences Research and Director of the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) on July 30, 2023. In this capacity, she led OBSSR’s initiatives to advance and synchronize behavioral and social sciences research across NIH, collaborating closely with…
August 3, 2017
Melissa L. Walls PhD (Bois Forte and Couchiching First Nations Anishinabe)
Melissa L. Walls Ph.D. (Bois Forte and Couchiching First Nations Anishinabe) is a social scientist committed to collaborative research and has over a decade of experience working with tribal communities in the United States and Canada. Her involvement in community-based participatory research (CBPR) projects to date includes mental health epidemiology; culturally-relevant, family-based substance use prevention…
July 28, 2017
Michelle Johnson-Jennings, PhD (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma)
July 7, 2017
Tessa Evans-Campbell, PhD (Snohomish)
Associate Professor Tessa Evans-Campbell is the director of the School’s MSW program. She completed her BA in art history at the University of Washington and her MSW at the University of California Los Angeles. Her research interests focus on historical trauma, resistance and healing; cultural buffers of trauma; substance use and mental health; and indigenous…
April 6, 2017
Karina L. Walters, PhD (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma)
Biography Karina L. Walters, an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, and is the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Tribal Health Research Office (THRO). Prior to her position at the NIH she was held the tenured full professorship and the distinguished Katherine Hall Chambers Scholar title at the University of…
