A candidate for the COH Community Health/Environmental Health Justice & Policy Indigenous Focus, Assistant Professor is a community-based participatory researcher with a Master of Public Health and a concentration in Environmental Health. The candidate served as a Susan G. Komen for the Cure Scholar through the Center for American Indian Community Health (CAICH). Currently, the candidate is finishing his doctoral training in Health Policy and Management (defense scheduled in April 2022). The dissertation focuses on understanding COVID-19 vaccine intentions among American Indians/Alaska Natives with the aim of informing COVID-19 vaccination policies and initiatives, improving access to care, and developing new and innovative interventions to reduce health disparities.

Job Talk: “Policies to combat the pandemic: Lessons learned from Tribal Leaders”
Abstract: American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) face some of the worst health disparities in the United States. These disparities are attributable to inequities in money, power, and resources that existed since colonization when Tribes were devastated by warfare, disease, and policies lasting impacts. Many of these disparities put AI/AN at higher risk of death or severe complications from the COVID-19 virus; in fact, AI/AN were 3.2 times more likely to be hospitalized and 2.2 times more likely to die from the COVID-19 virus when compared to non-Hispanic whites. This made the stakes high for Tribal leadership to mitigate the spread of the virus and ensure high vaccination rates once vaccines were available. The candidate’s research uses qualitative methods to examine policies implemented in tribal communities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.