This summer, we expanded our community outreach efforts by attending national as well as regional pow wows. We were honored to participate in the Red Earth Festival in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; the Seafair Powwow in Seattle, Washington; and the Gathering at the Falls Powwow in Spokane, Washington.

Across these events, we administered more than 400 needs assessments to find out which health topics matter most to our communities.

We look forward to further broadening our reach and learning more about American Indian and Alaska Native communities across the country.

We want to send a hearty congratulations to Savannah Smith at the University of Colorado Denver’s Centers for American Indian and Alaska Native Health! Savannah’ was nominated for a Local Impact Award at the Annual Heroes in Health Awards Gala sponsored by the National Indian Health Board on September 19 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Savannah was nominated for her exceptional work in coordinating the 2018 run for the Stronghold Fun Run and Hypertension Symposium held this past June in Denver, Colorado. Savannah’s work supported several wonderful speakers, encouraged fitness and fun for over 150 community members, gathered 70 assessments, and raised over $2500 for the event’s nonprofit partner, the Stronghold Society.

Savannah is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation and has always been interested in working with Native communities. Her commitment to public health was inspired by an introductory course in this field during her undergraduate studies at Mills College in California. After finishing her studies, she moved back home to Colorado and began volunteering with the Diabetes and Wellness program at Denver Indian Health and Family Services. She then accepted a job with the University of Colorado’s Centers for American Indian and Alaska Native Health, where she has worked for the past two years. So far in her career, Savannah has encountered a critical need for Native researchers, clinicians, and health promoters. As she says,

“We need more researchers to really connect with and have experience working with Native communities so that the relationships, the research, and the health outcomes are better aligned with those communities.”

We are very proud of Savannah, and we look forward to seeing more of her amazing work with our Native communities!

April 24, 2018 – Washington State University (WSU), which houses Partnerships for Native Health, was recently awarded a small grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support an initiative entitled “Reimagining the 21st Century Land Grant PhD.” This interdisciplinary project will convene a group of faculty, staff, and graduate students at WSU, who will consider how graduate education in the humanities can better support the university’s mission of improving access to resources, inclusion of population groups, and democratic engagement. Members of Partnership for Native Health will be part of the group.

Other participants include Ryan Booth, a graduate student in history and an enrolled member of the Upper Skagit Tribe. “Innovation is the key to human experience,” Mr. Booth said, “and I’m excited to participate in this creative process.” For more information on the new initiative, see this article in the WSU Insider.

We are happy to announce that we are hosting a small conference for Native teens this February 15^th (Seattle Public Schools Winter Break).  This will also be our final comic book site and we are hoping to have around 20 teens.