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 early career investigators and graduate students, particularly those who are American Indian, Alaska Native, or Native Hawaiian community members, is central to NCRE’s mission.
The NCRE Scholars program provides career development support to early career investigators and late-stage graduate students interested in pursuing research on substance use and disorder and Native child and adolescent development. In the first 13 years of this program (2012-2025), NCRE Scholars has supported 38 Scholars, including 17 postdoctoral and 21 graduate student Scholars.
The NCRE Scholars program is 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 Scholars | November 2024
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Alexis Merculief, PhD (Aleut) | NCRE Scholar Cohort 10
Alexis is an incoming Assistant Professor at the University of Oregon’s new Ballmer Institute for Child Behavioral Health, starting in fall 2025. Alexis earned her PhD in Human Development and Family Studies from Oregon State University and is currently completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the Stanford Center on Early Childhood. Alexis is interested in how features of the built and social environment influence young children's behavioral and cognitive health (specifically, executive function skills). Her research also examines how sources of community and cultural resilience can promote mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, and behavioral health for children from American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) and other underserved populations. At the Ballmer Institute, Alexis will support the institute’s mission to address the growing mental health crisis by creating a new mental health workforce, training child behavioral health specialists, and conducting community-engaged research with children and families in the Portland, OR area.
Cary Waubanascum, MSW, PhD (Oneida Nation citizen, Menominee, Forest County Potawatomi, Stockbridge-Munsee) | NCRE Scholar Cohort 10
In August 2024, Cary took on an Assistant Professor role in the Department of Indigenous Health at the University of North Dakota. She is thrilled to work from her home community in Oneida, WI. At UND, Cary is receiving support from her new department to advance her scholarship in Indigenous child welfare, enhance tribal research protections, and teach courses on American Indian and Indigenous health policy as well as Indigenous research methods.
Ashley Cole, PhD (Citizen Potawatomi Nation) | NCRE Scholar Cohort 7
Ashley was promoted to Associate Professor, with tenure, in the Department of Psychology at Oklahoma State University in June 2024. Ashley’s collaborative work examines health inequities and health behaviors among American Indian/Alaska Native (Indigenous) populations, including alcohol and substance use, exercise and eating patterns, and mental health. She also investigates social and individual determinants of health among AI/AN/Indigenous peoples from both resilience and risk perspectives. Ashley’s recent work includes serving as a Co-I/Oklahoma Site PI on a recently awarded NCI R01 (R01CA290675; MPIs: Carroll & Pickner) titled, “Randomized Clinical Trial of a Culturally-Tailored Suite of Smoking Cessation Resources for American Indian Persons.” Ashley served as a grant reviewer for the 2024 Tobacco-Related Disease Program Proposal Review, Community-Partnered Participatory Research Review Panel through the University of California, Office of the President-Research Grants Program Office. Ashley has also served as a Special Section Editor on Indigenous Child Development for the journal of Child Development, and she was invited as a leader to the "Chat with Leaders" event at the 2025 Society for Research on Child Development (SRCD) Biennial Meeting, to be held in Minneapolis, MN in May 2025. Ashley has also continued serving as an Associate Editor for the journal of Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology (CDEMP). Additionally, Ashley is continuing to serve as a mentor on the NIH/NIGMS T32 Graduate Research Training Initiative for Student Enhancement (G-RISE) at OSU (T32GM140953; awarded trainee: Katherina Arteaga, MA). Learn more about Ashley’s collaborative work.