NCRE Scholars Program
The Native Children’s Research Exchange (NCRE) brings together researchers studying child development from birth through emerging adulthood in Native communities. NCRE provides opportunities for the open exchange of information and ideas and for building collaborative relationships and disseminating knowledge about Native children’s development. Mentoring the next generation of scholars is central to NCRE’s mission.
Since 2012, NCRE Scholars has provided career development support to late stage doctoral students, individuals in postdoctoral training programs, and early career investigators interested in pursuing research on substance use and disorder and Native child and adolescent development. NCRE Scholars has supported 37 Scholars to date, including 21 doctoral students, 6 postdoctoral trainees, and 10 early career investigators. Through its conference-based NCRE stars (Students Thinking about Research CareerS) program, NCRE Scholars has supported nearly 40 additional early stage researchers.
The NCRE Scholars program is currently supported by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R25DA050645 – Whitesell and Sarche, MPI and R25DA061492 – Ivanich and Sarche, MPI).
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Featured Scholar | April 2025
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Meena Richardson (Haliwa-Saponi), PhD
Meena, an NCRE Scholar from Cohort 11, successfully defended her dissertation entitled: "Caregiving and Cultural Connectedness: Community Perspectives of the Urban Indigenous Experience." Meena holds an MPH from Bastyr University and an MS and PhD in Prevention Science from Washington State University. Since defending in December, she has transitioned into a faculty position as an Assistant Scientist at the Center for Indigenous Health at Johns Hopkins University. She also recently published a paper with NCRE family members Cary Waubanascum (Cohort 10), Michelle Sarche, and her PhD advisor Sara F. Waters entitled: "A decolonial perspective on Indigenous infant and early childhood mental health: Reclaiming Indigenous ways for the next seven generations" with the Infant Mental health Journal.