Indigenous Trauma & Resilience Research Center
In 2021, the UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences received a $10 million NIH award to develop an Indigenous Trauma & Resilience Research Center (ITRRC).
American Indians in North Dakota and throughout the region suffer from significant health disparities, relative to the non-Native population, and much of this is related to historical trauma, adverse childhood experiences, forced boarding school participation, social marginalization, and toxic stress. The ITRRC will establish resource cores and support three research projects led by assistant professors in the Public Health Program and the Department of Indigenous Health. The program will also fund smaller pilot grants and provide research mentorship to early career faculty to establish them as independent investigators.
Dr. Jonathan Geiger, Interim Principal Investigator
As of September 2022, Dr. Jonathan Geiger is Interim PI of the COBRE-funded Indigenous Trauma & Resilience Research Center, the goal of which is to address the impact of historical and unresolved trauma on health inequities within the American Indian and Alaska Native population. The project's original PI, Dr. Donald Warne, will continue to support the center as part of an internal advisory committee.
Request for Applications (RFA) -Extension
Pilot Grant Program 2024-2025 & Research Project Grant Program 2024-2026
ITRRC COBRE Colloquium Series
Explore Ethical Research Practices with Dr. Cynthia Pearson
Dr. Cynthia Pearson's recorded presentation on Research Ethics Training for Health in Indigenous Communities (rETHICS): Application of the Belmont Report & the Common Rule in American Indian and Alaska Native Research is now available to watch! Please go to Symposiums, Seminars, and Meetings tab!
Resource Cores
Human Subjects Core (HSC) |
The goal of the HSC is to build human subjects research capacity at UND while promoting effective and appropriate tribal engagement. Contact courtney.davis@UND.edu for assistance with human subjects research and compliance. |
|---|---|
Community Engagement and Outreach Core (CEOC) |
The goal of the CEOC is to increase culturally appropriate research with AI/AN communities through bidirectional outreach and training. The CEOC offers a Research Ethics Training for Health in Indigenous Communities (rETHICS) training toolkit through the UND continuing medical education portal. Contact courtney.davis@UND.edu for more information. |
Administrative Core |
The AC provides administrative support for the ITRRC and pilot projects program. Contact kimberly.harn@UND.edu if you have any questions regarding the development of your application. |
Research Projects
Historical trauma and resilience as a biological state and its relation to the effects
of the traditional Indigenous food chokeberry (PI: Joel Steele, MA, PhD)
American Indian populations suffer disproportionately from health problems, including nutrition-related chronic diseases like diabetes. This project will investigate how a traditional Indigenous food, the chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa), impacts epigenetic and metabolic health in relation to resiliency markers in Great Plains Indian participants. Research with American Indian communities is significant in that it can inform best practices in community engagement orientations, approaches, and models in future research settings.
Check out Joel Steele's publications and presentations.
Impact of American Indian Boarding Schools on Perceived Stress, Allostatic Load, and
Resilience (PI: Ursula Running Bear, PhD, MS)
American Indians that attended boarding school experienced repeated stress as a result of their attendance. Repeated stress in childhood increases allostatic load in adulthood. This study tests whether allostatic load (chronic stress) is related to American Indian boarding school attendance.
Check out Ursula Running Bear's work:
-
UND Today's Truth and Reconciliation article -
American Indians forced to attend boarding schools as children are more likely to be in poor health as adults. -
Federal Boarding School Initiative Press Conference -
Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report -
Tribal Values, Tribal Justice Podcast
Stress and Health in American Indian Pregnancies (PI: Andrew Williams, PhD, MPH)
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of mortality among American Indian populations, and investigations of early-life determinants of cardiovascular disease are warranted. The proposed project will examine multiple pathways linking maternal ACEs and infant growth, a recognized risk factor for cardiovascular disease in adulthood. This project will highlight specific pathways that could potentially be modified to reduce future risk of cardiovascular disease among American Indian populations.
Check out Andrew Williams' publications and presentations.
The ITRRC is supported by the National Institute Of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number P20GM139759.