2nd Quarter 2015

  The guiding principle of NYEP’s summer program is to empower Native middle school students to focus in school by making STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) curriculum culturally relevant. Students will see first-hand the incredible impact one can have personally and in the community by meeting university students and Native role models who currently…

This article originally appeared in the June 2015 issue of Biskinik, the monthly newspaper of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, and is reprinted here with permission. Yvppvlli: (YOH-pol-ee) To walk slowly and softly, not with a hard tread (Choctaw Language Dictionary, by Cyrus Byington) Each one of us will face a set of challenges as…

The Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center (Detroit URC, Director Barbara Israel, DrPH) is a collaborative partnership composed of representatives from eleven organizations.  Detroit URC has selected 12 community-academic teams from across the U.S. to participate in the Community-Based Participatory Research Partnership (CBPR) Academy, funded by the National Institutes of Health. This new, year-long program is…

In May 2015, Professor C. June Strickland recivied the Distinguished Diversity Advocate Award from theUW School of Nursing, and the “Rising Star” award, Women of Color Empowered lunchon, sponsored by the Northwest Asian Weekly. The following was excerpted in part from UW Nurses Recognition Banquet program, May 6, 2015; and Northwest Asian Weekly, May 23,…

There is something profoundly moving about the way that University of Hawai’i at Mānoa Professor Valli Kalei Kanuha commands a space. For days after having heard her speak on Wednesday, May 18, the memory of Dr. Kanuha’s powerful opening words continued to reverberate in my mind: “We walk as guests except in places where our…

As a Menominee doctoral student at the University of Washington School of Social Work, I was thrilled that one of my ultimate tribal heroines and social work mentors was invited to speak at several campus events in late March and early April this year. Ada Deer was invited as one of IWRI’s Elders in Residence….

After over a year of intensive preparations, the “Creating Campus Change” (CCC) project (Principal Investigator Bonnie Duran, PhD; Co-Investigators Mary Larimer, PhD; Dennis Donovan, PhD; Myra Parker, JD-PhD; and Maya Magarati, PhD) went into the field at 22 tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) throughout the U.S. and Canada during April and May 2015. The CCC…

The Indigenous Wellness Research Institute’s Research, Training, and Education Core was pleased to host Valerie Segrest, guest presenter for IWRI’s Speaker Series, at the University of Washington-Seattle campus on May 6, 2015. Valerie (Muckleshoot) is a Native nutrition educator, and she specializes in local and traditional foods. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition…

Several students provided critical assistance to project staff during the 2014-2015 academic year. One, Nick Romero, was highlighted in the April 2015 IWRI Newsletter. Three other students provided mini auto-biographies, which are presented as submitted. My name is Beth Conklin and I just finished my first year of the Master in Social Work program. I…

Indigenous communities have long known that American Indian culture can have important protective effects on health. Facilitated by Drs. Mellissa Walls and Cynthia Pearson, IWRI hosted a think tank on the measurement of culture on May 26, 2015 as part of a meeting preceding the 2015 Society for Prevention Research Conference in Washington D.C. Nineteen…