NCRE Featured Scholars

September 2024 Featured Scholars

Check out our Scholars! Helen Russette (Cohort 8), Evan White (Cohort 8), and Cass Armstrong (Cohort 11) were selected as prestigious Aspen Ideas Health Fellows.  No surprise of course!  Aspen Ideas Health Fellows are described as “a diverse group of health leaders who are selected for their innovative work, inspired accomplishments, and ability to transform ideas into action." As Fellows, Helen, Evan and Cass attended the Aspen Ideas Premier Health Gathering, which convened in June “with over 100 leading experts in healthcare, public health, policymaking, climate, tech, business, and the arts to discuss the greatest challenges and opportunities across the health landscape."  Congratulations Cass, Helen, and Evan!  We couldn’t be prouder!

June 2024 Featured Scholars

This month, we'd like to highlight former NCRE Scholars and their recently funded grant proposals!

Tribal Adolescent Connections Study

Two NCRE Scholars are Co-Principal Investigators on this study: Katie A. Schultz (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma), PhD, who is an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan, School of Social Work and Jerreed Ivanich (Metlakatla Indian Community), PhD, who is an Assistant Professor at the Centers for American Indian & Alaska Native Health at the University of Colorado.

Funded by NIH NIDA (Grant No. R01DA060108-01), this longitudinal, mixed methods study will examine changes in the social networks of American Indian youth across adolescence and collect community-level social network data to identify optimal timing and strategies for culturally grounded prevention of substance use, suicide and exposure to violence at the micro (individual) and macro (community) levels. 

Helen Russette, PhD, MPH (Chippewa-Cree Tribe)

Dr. Russette, an Assistant Scientist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, has received two awards this year! 

Applying the Traditional Ecological Knowledge Framework to Develop and Evaluate a Nature-based Culturally Grounded Substance Misuse Intervention for Native American Families

Funded by NIH NIDA (Grant no. K01DA060294-01), the overall goals for this project are to (1) develop and evaluate for implementation success, a nature-based culturally grounded substance misuse intervention tailored to Native American teenage mothers and their young children that live in a tribal community; and (2) advance my research and professional capacity to become an independent research investigator.

Investigating Culturally Grounded Interventions Occurring in the Natural Environment Designed to Address 'Deaths of Despair' among Native Americans

Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Evidence for Action (E4A) (Grant no. 81524), the overarching research goals are to (1) inform the nature-based culturally grounded (NBCG) substance misuse intervention of the present and historical significance of place; (2) Identify place-based facilitators, barriers, and biodiversity (“non-human relatives”) present at NBCG intervention study sites; and, (3) Evaluate the efficacy of the NBCG intervention. 

Heather Sauyaq Jean Gordon | March 2024 Featured Scholar

We'd like to highlight former NCRE Scholar Heather Gordon's most recent work, which highlights the role of Indigenous culture as a protective factor from past and ongoing colonization and historical trauma. She explains how cultural engagement through social and intergenerational connectedness, Indigenous languages, spirituality and ceremonies, relationships with the land and subsistence, enculturation and identity formation, and traditional games and activities are protective for Indigenous people. She specifically focused some of her work on the protective role of land connection through subsistence in Alaska, and wrote a policy paper addressing how the loss of subsistence would be devastating to Indigenous wellbeing. See her recent work below:

• Indigenous Community Projects: Addressing Colonization through Using Culture as a Protective Factor. International Indigenous Policy Journal. 
  
• Current policy landscape prevents subsistence protections and practices necessary for Alaska Native children and families’ well-being. Child Trends. 
  
• 5 ways that subsistence practices support Indigenous child and family well-being. Child Trends. 

Heather Gordon, a Cohort 11 NCRE Scholar, is currently an owner/primary consultant at Sauyaq Solutions and an adjunct faculty at American University and holds a PhD in Indigenous Studies with an emphasis in Sustainability from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and a MS in Community and Environmental Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Alexis Merculief | January 2024 Featured Scholar 

Please join us in congratulating Cohort 10 NCRE Scholar Alexis Merculief (Aleut) on her recent publication in the journal Frontier in Psychology. The article, "Nurturing resilience in American Indian/Alaska Native preschool children: The role of culture in socialization, executive function, and neighborhood risk," highlights work on a new study that used American Indian and Alaska Native Head Start Family and Child Experience Survey (AIAN FACES) data.

One of the core wisdoms highlighted by the research was that parents, family, and community play an important role in building strong cultural identity for preschoolers. Many tribal cultural and language activities promote children's cognitive development.

>> Read the full article here.

Cary Waubanascum & Jerreed Ivanich | November 2023 Featured Scholars 

We are proud to announce that two of our NCRE Scholars have been selected as 2023 Aspen Institute Ascend Fellows: Drs. Cary Waubanascum (Cohort 10) and Jerreed Ivanich (Cohort 6). The Aspen Institute Ascend Fellows program brings together leaders and changemakers from across the country, in diverse sectors, serving diverse communities. Ascend is a catalyst for the bold ideas that Cary and Jerreed bring to this space and our shared work to support the health, wellbeing, and THRIVING of Native children, families, and communities. Cary and Jerreed join 2 other NCRE Scholars who are previous Ascend Fellows – Drs. Alicia Mousseau (Cohort 1) and Jessica Ullrich (Cohort 8). 

Please take a few moments to watch the video and learn how Cary and Jerreed plan to ascend! Congratulations again Cary and Jerreed – we can’t wait to see where your work goes from here!

Welcome to our Cohort 12 NCRE Scholars!  | October 2023

Meenakshi Richardson | September 2023 Featured Scholar

Monica Tsethlikai & Evan White | June 2023 Featured Scholars

The Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) biennial meeting was held on March 23- 25th. We are excited to share there is now an Indigenous Caucus at SRCD! The SRCD Indigenous Caucus was established in 2022 to advance developmental research on Indigenous children, youth, and families; to advocate for increased attention to issues related to indigeneity in developmental science more broadly; and to support the development of Indigenous researchers and scholars within developmental science.   

We are thrilled to announce TRC and NCRE Scholars are on the founding steering committee: Michelle Sarche, Director/Principal Investigator of the Tribal Early Childhood Research Center (TRC) at University of Colorado, and two NCRE Scholars, Monica Tsethlikai, Associate Professor at the Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics at Arizona State University, and Evan White, Associate Investigator at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

>> Read more about the new Indigenous Caucus.

Alexis Merculief | April 2023 Featured Scholar

Susie Lopez & Evan White | January 2023 Featured Scholars

Two NCRE Scholars are featured this month - Susanna (Susie) Lopez (Cohort 9) and Evan White (Cohort 8). Susie is Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Indigenous Health Research and Policy at Oklahoma State University. Evan is an Associate Investigator at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research (LIBR). Both have exciting career achievements we’d like to share!

Susie was recently accepted into the Center for American Indian and Alaska Native Diabetes Translation Research (CAIANDTR) Pilot & Feasibility Program. This program provides support for early-stage investigators (ESIs) committed to conducting translational research related to diabetes in American Indian and Alaska Native populations. 

>>Learn more about Susie's pilot project.

Evan is the lead author of a recently published article in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, titled "Five recommendations for using large-scale publicly available data to advance health among American Indian peoples: the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) StudySM as an illustrative case."  Be sure to check out this important contribution that outlines recommendations developed in partnership with the Cherokee Nation IRB on the responsible use of large-scale, publicly available American Indian and Alaska Native health data.

>>Read Evan's article.

Welcome to our Cohort 11 NCRE Scholars! | December 2022

We recently welcomed a new cohort of NCRE Scholars! Dr. Heather Jean Gordon, Cassidy Armstrong, Nicole Reed, and Meenakshi Richardson joined NCRE Scholars Cohort 11 in October.  All are dedicated to pursuing research on substance use and disorder and Native child and adolescent development. Welcome Cohort 11!

Jessica Saniguq Ullrich | November 2022 Featured Scholar

Jessica Saniguq Ullrich is a Cohort 8 NCRE Scholar. She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage and a tribal member of the Nome Eskimo Community. We are excited to share the news of Jessica’s acceptance into the 2022 Aspen Ascend Fellowship this past spring. She is joined in this cohort by NCRE member Dr. Deana Around Him from Child Trends. According to the Ascend announcement, over the course of their fellowship, “Fellows will have a chance to inspire, challenge, and support each other and grow their leadership in exponential ways. Ascend Fellows will pursue work across sectors that impact the vitality and wellness of families, from reinventing systems of care and learning, unlocking capital that opens doors for economic inclusion and justice, and breaking ground with research that changes the course for policies and practices directly impacting communities." Congratulations Jessica on this major recognition!

Amanda Hunter | July 2022 Featured Scholar

Amanda Hunter is a Cohort 9 NCRE Scholar. Amanda is currently a postdoctoral scholar at Northern Arizona University’s Center for Health Equity Research. Amanda holds a PhD in Public Health (Health Behavior and Health Promotion) from the University of Arizona. She recently received a National Institutes of Health Maximizing Opportunities for Scientific and Academic Independent Careers (MOSAIC) K99-R00 award, called a Pathway to Independence Award, which will assist her in expanding and supporting her research. She is the first postdoctoral scholar at Northern Arizona University to receive a K99-R00 for her work titled, “Native Spirit: Culturally-grounded Substance Use Prevention for Indigenous Adolescents.”

Rebecca Young | June 2022 Featured Scholar

Rebecca Young is a Cohort 10 NCRE Scholar. Rebecca Young is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Rebecca holds a master’s degree in counseling psychology from Alaska Pacific University. Rebecca was selected as a NW NARCH Fellow. The Northwest Native American Research Center for Health (NW NARCH) program is operated by the EpiCenter at the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board (NPAIHB), an Indian organization uniquely qualified to administer NW NARCH based on active membership of all 43 Northwest Indian tribes in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. As a NW NARCH Fellow, Rebecca Young will have access to highly trained AI/AN health researchers sensitive to the culture and specific concerns of Northwest Indian and Alaska Native communities. In addition, as a NW NARCH Fellow, Rebecca will receive funding for work on her dissertation research. The NW NARCH fellowship additionally offers a travel stipend for conference attendance.

Amanda Hunter | March 2022 Featured Scholar

Amanda Hunter is a Cohort 9 NCRE Scholar. Amanda is currently a postdoctoral scholar at Northern Arizona University’s Center for Health Equity Research. Amanda holds a PhD and MPH in Health Behavior and Health Promotion from the University of Arizona. Amanda’s recent publication, "Native Spirit: Development of a culturally grounded after-school program to promote well-being among American Indian adolescents," describes her work with community partners to develop, implement, and evaluate a culturally-grounded after-school program. The after-school program, called Native Spirit, is based on Indigenous cultural values and activities and is led by traditional knowledge holders from the community. The community and academic partners hope that Native Spirit will strengthen adolescent cultural identity, self-esteem, resilience, and decrease substance use initiation.

Monica Tsethlikai | January 2022 Featured Scholar 

Monica Tsethlikai is a Cohort 2 NCRE Scholar. Monica is currently an Associate Professor at the Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics at Arizona State University. Monica was recently featured on the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) website in a SCRD Member Spotlight. Monica has become a member of the Ethnic and Racial Issue Committee (ERI) this year at SRCD. Monica is excited about the opportunity to advocate for more inclusion of Indigenous voices and research in the US and around the world. She hopes to see more research on Indigenous children featured in Child Development and Child Development Perspectives.

Alicia Mousseau | November 2021 Feature Scholar 

Alicia Mousseau is a Cohort 1 NCRE Scholar. Alicia is currently the Vice President for the Oglala Sioux Tribe. Alicia holds a PhD in Psychology from the University of Wyoming. Alicia was recently selected as a 2021 Aspen Ascend Fellow. Over the next year, Ascend Fellows will have a chance to inspire, challenge, and support each other and grow their leadership in exponential ways. Ascend Fellows pursue work across sectors that impact the vitality and wellness of families, from reinventing systems of care and learning, unlocking capital that opens doors for economic inclusion and justice, and breaking ground with research that changes the course for policies and practices directly impacting communities.

Helen Russette | October 2021 Featured Scholar

Helen Russette is a Cohort 8 NCRE Scholar. Dr. Russette is a post-doctoral researcher at the Center for American Indian Health in the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. As part of her dissertation, she was able to spend almost two years developing a relationship with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes to conduct a study on identifying and measuring resilience factors among young children with and without prenatal substance exposure. This relationship-building phase of their study was recently published by the Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse entitled “Relationship-building to develop an Indigenous community-based epidemiological study investigating developmental resilience factors among children with prenatal substance exposure.”

Tammy Martin | September 2021 Featured Scholar

Tammy Kahalaopuna Kaho'olemana Martin is an NCRE Scholar in Cohort 9. Tammy is an Assistant Professor of Social Work at Hawaii Pacific University. She holds a PhD in Social Welfare from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Dr. Martin was recently awarded a National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Diversity Supplement entitled, “Intervention development and pilot study to prevent untreated Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander opioid use disorders.” This award will support her work to understand the cultural and community facilitators and barriers to treatment seeking for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander people with opioid and methamphetamine use disorders. She is looking forward to learning from this work to develop a cultural intervention that can be tested in future research. Tammy’s mentors for this award are Drs. Andy Subica, Keawe'aimoku Kaholokula, Nia Aitaoto, and Scott Okomoto.  Congratulations Tammy! We are so excited to see where your research will lead.  

Helen Russette | July 2021 Featured Scholar

Helen Russette is a Cohort 8 NCRE Scholar and a doctoral candidate at the University of Montana. During the COVID-19 outbreak, Helen had the opportunity to measure one of her greenspace exposure variables as part of a separate study of COVID-19 mortality risk. Her study, “Greenspace exposure and COVID-19 mortality in the United States: January–July 2020,” was recently published in Environmental Research. Results indicated a dose-response association between increasing deciles of greenspace exposure and reduced risk of COVID-19 mortality across the conterminous United States. Counties with a higher prevalence of older age residents, lower education attainment, Native Americans, Black Americans, and housing overcrowding were significantly associated with increased risk of COVID-19 mortality, whereas Medicaid coverage showed a significantly reduced risk. Congratulations on this important and timely contribution to the literature Helen!

Read her published paper, "Greenspace exposure and COVID-19 mortality in the United States: January–July 2020."

Katie Schultz & Jerreed Ivanich | June 2021 Featured Scholars

Katie Schultz and Jerreed Ivanich are Cohort 6 NCRE Scholars. Katie is an Assistant Professor of Social Work at the University of Michigan, and Jerreed is an Assistant Professor of Public Health at the University of Colorado, Centers for American Indian and Alaska Native Health. Katie and Jerreed were recently funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse for the study, Tribal Reservations Adolescent Connections. This mixed-methods social network study will explore the peer and family relationships of American Indian (AI) youth, and how they factor in substance use, exposure to violence, and suicide among youth living on a Northern Plains reservation. This project grew out of their time together as NCRE scholars. NCRE co-director, Dr. Nancy Whitesell, is a Co-Investigator on the study. Congratulations Jerreed and Katie! We look forward to hearing more about findings from this important work!

Susie Lopez & Evan White | May 2021 Featured Scholars 

Two current NCRE Scholars are featured this month -- Susanna (Susie) Lopez and Evan White. Susie is a 5th year clinical psychology PhD student at Oklahoma State University. Evan is an Associate Investigator at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research (LIBR). Both Scholars have made contributions towards the special issue "Native American Issues in Behavior Therapy and Research: Parts I-II" in the Behavior Therapist. Susie served as guest editor on both the March and April 2021 issues, and Evan was a co-author of the article, “For the good of the community: Considering the impact of evidence-based treatment adaptation on Tribal communities,” published in the April issue. Great job Susie and Evan on these significant contributions to the literature!

Susie Lopez | April 2021 Featured Scholar 

Susanna (Susie) Lopez is a Cohort 9 NCRE Scholar and a 5th year clinical psychology PhD graduate student at Oklahoma State University. As a final step towards obtaining her PhD, Susie has successfully matched to a one-year clinical internship at the VA Puget Sound in Seattle, beginning July 2021. During this internship, Susie aims to expand her clinical training in substance use and behavior medicine, and further her research investigating the etiology and treatment of high-risk drinking with diverse veteran populations. She believes the internship program at the VA in Seattle is an ideal program to solidify her clinical skills before graduating in May 2022, and it is an excellent step towards reaching her career goal of becoming an independent substance use researcher. Congratulations Susie! We are excited to see where this next phase of your professional journey leads!

Helen Russette | March 2021 Featured Scholar

Helen Russette is a Cohort 8 NCRE Scholar and is currently a PhD candidate in Public Health at the University of Montana. Helen was recently awarded an American Indian Alaska Native Clinical and Translational Research Program (AI/AN CTRP) Diversity award housed at Montana State University and an American Indian Graduate Center Community Impact Scholarship award from the Center for Native Scholarships. The awards will provide a stipend, tuition, research or dissertation support, and conference travel for an AI/AN mentee on a currently funded study and provide AI/AN doctoral candidates with additional support to carry out impactful research that addresses issues of social and racial equality, equity, and diversity through various fields of study. Combined funding will cover Ms. Russette’s time, community-related activities, and any other research needs in order to complete her dissertation. 

Jessica Saniguq Ullrich | February 2021 Featured Scholar

Jessica Saniguq Ullrich is a Cohort 8 NCRE Scholar. She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage, a tribal member of the Nome Eskimo Community, and a proud mother of two middle school daughters. Jessica has a PhD in Social Welfare from the University of Washington and graduated in March 2020. We are excited to share her list of recent publications!  Both of which have been co-authored with current and former NCRE Scholars and mentors.

• Wexler, L., Rasmus, S., Ullrich, J., Apala Flaherty, A., Raymond-Yakoubian, J., Amorak, B., Johnson, R., Murphrey, C. & Allen, J. (2020). Knowledge co-production through the development of a measure of Alaska Native community protective factors. Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education, and Action, 14(4), 443-459.
  
• Elliott-Groves, E., Hardison-Stevens, D., & Ullrich, J. (2020). Indigenous Relationality is the Heartbeat of Indigenous Existence during COVID-19. [Special issue]. Journal of Indigenous Social Development, Indigenous Communities and COVID-19: Impact and Implications, 9(3), 158-169.
  

Katie Schultz | January 2021 Featured Scholar

Katie Schultz is a Cohort 6 NCRE Scholar. Dr. Schultz is currently an Assistant Professor of Social Work at the University of Michigan. She holds a PhD in Social Welfare from the University of Washington. She and her co-author, Emma Noyes, are really excited about a new publication, "'Then Who Are You?': Young American Indian and Alaska Native Women Navigating Cultural Connectedness in Dating and Relationships." It is an important and unexplored topic – the authors explore dating and relationships among a sample of young Native women. They also incorporate some innovative approaches that the authors hope will expand how we think about academic publishing. This included adding illustrations to the text and asking a group of Indigenous women to review and interpret the findings for the discussion section. 

Sarah Momilani Marshall | December 2020 Featured Scholar

Sarah Momilani Marshall is a Cohort 8 NCRE Scholar. Momilani is currently a post-doctoral researcher at Hawai‘i Pacific University. Momilani holds a PhD in Social Welfare from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Recently she was awarded a Diversity Supplement grant from the National Institute of Drug Abuse. The Diversity Supplement will build upon a current research project that focuses on the implementation of a culturally grounded drug prevention curriculum in public schools on the Island of Hawai`i (R34 DA046735: “The Implementation, Adoption, and Sustainability of Ho‘ouna Pono”; PI: Scott Okamoto). The 2-year Diversity Supplement will provide Momilani with research training, education, and mentorship while enabling her to expand the culturally grounded drug prevention curriculum, Ho‘ouna Pono, into charter schools on the Island of Hawai`i. 

Evan White | October 2020 Featured Scholar

Evan White is a Cohort 8 NCRE Scholar. Evan is currently an Associate Investigator at Laureate Institute for Brain Research (LIBR). Evan holds a PhD in Clinical Psychology from Oklahoma State University. He began at LIBR as a post-doctoral research fellow working with Robin Aupperle, PhD. He was promoted to Associate Investigator in July 2020 and will continue to build his program of research aimed at applying neuroscience to understanding American Indian resilience and risk in relation to mental health. He is currently developing a project that will be the first to explore neuroscientific markers of cultural protective factors among American Indians.

Learn more about Evan's work.