News & Events

1st Quarter 2013


May 1, 2013

New and Continuing Personnel at IWRI

IWRI has indeed grown significantly since its inception and thus I wanted to take this opportunity to share with you the following bios for our new staff: Nicole Fossos-Wong is a new member of the Sacred Journey Project Team. Nicole grew up in the Seattle area and briefly lived in Austin, TX before returning to…


April 30, 2013

IWRI Travels to Australia and Aotearoa (New Zealand)

Photos and descriptions courtesy of Derek Jennings, Tetana Oguara, Chris Charles and Christine Waitai-Rapana.


IWRI’s 2013 Graduates

Kerrie Sumner Murphy Osiyo!  I am of Cherokee, Irish and English descent, growing up mostly in Iowa in a moderately urban setting.  I moved to Washington in 1994 after graduating from the University of Iowa where I majored in anthropology and women’s studies.  One of my first jobs in Washington was with the Native American…


April 27, 2013

Welcome! IWRI’s First Quarterly Newsletter as a Center of Excellence

As Director of the Indigenous Wellness Research Center (IWRI), I am humbled and honored to announce that we were awarded a National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) Comprehensive Center of Excellence grant in September 2012.  This extremely competitive, 5-year, $5 million grant would never have been awarded to IWRI without the steadfast…


Reclaiming the Trail of Tears: Yappalli Project 2012

In June of 2012, a small group from the University of Washington’s Indigenous Wellness Research Institute (IWRI) and Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma walked the historical “Trail of Tears.”  The project was a partnership between Choctaw Nation and IWRI and was named “Yappalli,” meaning “to walk slowly and softly” in the Choctaw language.  The group was…


April 12, 2013

Students from the University of Newcastle’s Wollotuka School of Aboriginal Studies Visit IWRI

As an Indigenous person, I was recently reminded that we are connected in so many ways to our relatives beyond the borders of Indian Country or any other country. On November 27, 2012, the Indigenous Wellness Research Institute was honored to act as host for a group of Australian Aboriginal health career students from the…


The Retirement of Denny Hurtado

The Indigenous Wellness Research Institute (IWRI), would like to take a moment and recognize the retirement of Denny Hurtado.  Mr. Hurtado, is an enrolled member of the Skokomish Indian Tribe and formerly held the position as its tribal chairman.  He is retiring from the Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction as the…


Building Capacity in Indigenous Research: the IHART and ISMART Programs

There are two research training programs at IWRI that are drawing up-and-coming scholars and researchers from around the country: IHART and ISMART.  These programs were created to help Native scholars work on their own research projects with the guidance of a mentor.  Indigenous HIV/AIDS Research Training Program, IHART, allows Indigenous students and scholars to conduct…