Two ground-breaking CBPR projects directed by Principal Investigator (PI) Bonnie Duran, DrPH, are nearing the end of four years of funding in August 2013. The defining characteristic of CBPR is that the research is conducted as an equal partnership between academic personnel and community members. The community participates fully in all aspects of the research…

“Palatisha Miyanashma: The children are growing.” —Patsy L. Whitefoot Patsy Whitefoot (Yakama) knows hardship and success. As a young girl from the Yakama Indian Reservation (“The Rez”), she and her sisters were enrolled in a reservation mission boarding school when her care-giver grandmother became ill. In high school, she experienced what she called “discrimination toward…

In June 2013, Dr. Jordan Lewis (Aleut) started his new position as an Assistant Professor with the UW School of Social Work and IWRI. Until recently, Jordan was a Postdoctoral/Senior Research Fellow at the UW School of Medicine on a National Institute of Mental Health-funded postdoctoral training program. His research focusses on exploring the lived…

Associate Professor Tessa Evans-Campbell (Snohomish) is the director of the Master of Social Work (MSW) Program at the UW. She completed a BA in art history at the UW and her MSW and PhD at UCLA. Her research interests focus on historical trauma, child welfare, resistance and healing, cultural buffers of trauma, substance use and…

On Saturday, February 23, 2013, the HU Center for Native Health & Culture partnered with IWRI to host 160 people at the “One Ocean, Shared Waters, Shared Knowledges” event at HU.  The gathering celebrated the sharing of indigenous knowledges and research partnerships for indigenous health equity in Aotearoa (New Zealand), Hawai’i, and Turtle Island (mainland…

An engaged audience attended Dr. Antony Stately’s discussion of “Ethical Issues in Clinical Practice within Tribal Communities,” the inaugural offering of the IWRI NCoE Speaker Series. In his talk, Antony emphasized the importance of taking context and community into account in mental health clinical practice with tribal communities. Among other topics, he outlined how historical…

IWRI hosted the Vision to Action Partnership Summit, May 22–24, 2013, at the beautiful Kiana Lodge in Suquamish, Washington.  One-hundred-thirty-one participants of the Summit included 26 staff, faculty and students from IWRI and the UW, and 106 invited guests including tribal community members, Native and non-Native researchers, and non-Native allies and research partners. Several project-related…

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…

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

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…