July 26, 2017

New IWRI Staff Member: Lucy Smartlowit-Briggs

Lucy Smartlowit-Briggs is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes & Bands of the Yakama Nation and of Mexican descent. She is the parent of two offspring, Taos (age 19) & Cordy (age 17), and she has a military spouse. For fun, Lucy enjoys watching true crime shows, petting other people’s dogs, reading graphic novels, attending comic/anime cons and exchanging internet memes with her offspring.

Lucy has a love for education and obtained her Bachelor of Arts (2004) in Psychology from Heritage University; her Master of Arts (2010) in Criminal Justice from Boston University Metropolitan and her MSW (2014) in Social Economic Development with a focus on American Indians/Alaskan Native communities from the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. She also has credits in Business Administration in entrepreneurship and chemical dependency. Lucy has a wide range of interests including community development, suicide prevention, Two-Spirit/transgender social/family issues, forensic science, intergenerational & historical trauma particularly within tribal communities.

Through IWRI, Lucy has been able to continue working with her tribal community and in other

capacities. She serves as a project evaluator for her tribe’s suicide prevention program and crime victims’ resource program. She previously served on the Advisory Board for IWRI’s ETHICS and Sacred Journey projects and has done recruitment for other IWRI research projects. Lucy has hopes to enter the UW School of Social Work PhD Program in the next few years.