R. Turner Goins is the Ambassador Jeanette Hyde Distinguished Professor in the College of Health and Human Sciences at Western Carolina University. She received her MS and PhD in gerontology from the University of Massachusetts-Boston, and she completed a post doctoral research fellowship funded by the National Institute on Aging at Duke University Medical School. Her training has been complemented by intensive mentoring by leaders in the field of American Indian and Alaska Native health. For the last 17 years, her research has addressed aging and health-related issues among American Indians and Alaska Natives. Dr. Goins has more than 70 peer-reviewed publications, of which 43 focus on Native health. Her research has been funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and local and regional foundations. To date, she has mentored 26 junior faculty and graduate students. She recently received a Fulbright Award to examine aging issues among the Māori of New Zealand, where she will be in residence at the University of Auckland from February through June 2018.