Dr. Parker serves as the Principal Investigator for several CDC sub-contracts through the National Network of Public Health Institutes, including the Tribal Opioid Overdose Prevention project, Indigenous Social Determinants of Health, the Stopping Elderly Accidents, Death & Injuries (referred to as “STEADI”) project, and Tribal Public Health Capacity building. She is also the PI of a tribal technical assistance HRSA sub-contract through Georgia State University, and Co-Investigator for a RWJF-funded study on tribal systems alignment.

Prior to her work in Seven Directions, Myra served as Co-Investigator on an ETHICS project to culturally adapt a human subjects curriculum for tribal communities; a national epidemiology research study grounded in Community-Based Participatory Research involving 22 Tribal Colleges and Universities to establish alcohol, tobacco, and drug use rates within their respective communities through a mixed methods approach; and, an NIAAA R01 research study investigating the effectiveness of a culturally-adapted version of the “BASICS” (Brief Alcohol Screening & Intervention in College Students) intervention and a policy intervention.

As an enrolled member of the Mandan and Hidatsa tribes, Myra is aware of the historical health practices and misconduct perpetuated on tribes in the United States. Her background in law and policy has informed a broader understanding of the principles of ethics as well as honed her ability to identify methods to address the disparities in research control and access through the use of formalized agreements.

Christina is a public health practitioner and researcher. She leads/co-leads evaluation and practice development projects in public health, mental health, addiction, and overdose - injury prevention (CDC funded). She serves on working groups for the NCREW-GATHER collaborative network (NIH funded). Its aim is to ensure research capacity and infrastructure development, 'by and for' Native nations and Indigenous communities, in substance misuse/abuse and pain management, treatment, and prevention. She has a background in creative expression methodologies (story/poetry sharing, photovoice, digital storytelling), recently developing a public health participatory media resource (NACCHO funded). Christina is a co-instructor at the UW School of Public Health and preceptor for MPH students from various colleges/universities across the U.S. This work includes training, technical assistance, internship/professional development, communities of practice, ECHO model, national meeting convening, and translation and implementation science.

Christina's primary research area is Indigenous systems alignment and data stewardship for Indigenous healing-health praxis/practice. To this end she has led cross-sector systems alignment studies with multiple tribal partners. Most recently for the Coeur d' Alene Tribe's Tribal Care Coordination Dashboard: Coeur Adolescent Support Team Referrals study (Systems for Action-RWJF funded). This area represents the interface/interconnection of Indigenous data governance and infrastructure, research ethics, traditional healing/health care, public health/behavioral health, environmental/planetary health, creative expression methodologies, and relational sciences. It originated during her tenure with the Pascua Yaqui Tribe's Health Services Division, 2000 - 2019, that culminated in a dissertation titled, "Indigenous health systems: An emergent Yaqui-centered framework for public health practice". It represents a guest-relative methodology, Indigenous knowledge-placed based framework for practice, and was applied to tribal public health accreditation.

Christina is an active member of the Collaboratory for Indigenous Data Governance(Dr. S Russo Carroll) (https://indigenousdatalab.org/), Seven Directions - Whakauae Māori Health Services (Dr. A Boulton) partnership (https://www.whakauae.co.nz/), Quechua Alliance (U Berkeley, U Illinois, & U Penn), and World Federation of Public Health Association (WFPHA), Indigenous working group. Recently, she joined the Peruvian Education, Action, and Research (PEAR) network (U Washington) and Planetary Health Alliance (John Hopkins University).

Christina received her BA in Latin American studies from Oberlin College, 1991; MPH in community health practice, 2002; and DrPH in public health policy and management, 2018, from the Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona. Her paternal family are Andean descendants from Caja Espiritu and Huancavelica, with ties to Ayacucho and Junin, Perú. Her maternal family, Irish ancestry, are from Arizona. Christina's commitment to this work is through her family, connections to place, and long standing relationships within the Pascua Yaqui Tribe in Arizona and Sonora.

Dr. Magarati is indigenous Magar from Nepal’s Himalayas. Her lived and professional experiences navigating both the Global North’s and the Global South’s historical, political, socio-economic-cultural landscapes center her research, teaching, and service around equity.

Maya’s scholarship straddles the intersection of sociology, public health, behavioral health and geography in addressing social inequities with an intention of fostering knowledge democracy and achieving holistic wellbeing. She incorporates Western as well as Indigenous, place-based, culture-centered epistemologies and collaborative approaches to understanding and addressing the social, behavioral, cultural, and environmental health determinants which result in disparities in access to and use of services, delivery, and outcomes related to substance use, mental health, STI/HIV, and environmental health.  

Maya attributes her community-based participatory research orientation in research, service, and teaching to her active involvement in the UW’s Indigenous Wellness Research Institute (IWRI) since 2010. These include building partnerships with Tribal Colleges and Universities, and research collaboration with multidisciplinary, cross-institutional global teams investigating health disparities in American Indian and Alaska Native populations, immigrant, refugee and rural populations in the U.S., and among Indigenous communities in Nepal experiencing environmental health issues and climate change. Maya is a current Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Interdisciplinary Research Leaders fellow, where she collaborates on a community-engaged climate change, water insecurity, ecological trauma, resilience, and environmental action research project with a tribe in rural Alaska.  

Maya is an affiliate faculty with the UW Department of Sociology, and the Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology as well as a preceptor (Nepal) for IWRI’s NIH-funded LUNA International Indigenous Health Research Training Program.

Maya received her B.S. in Nutrition & Dietetics in Australia, an M.A. in Sociology under the Fulbright program, and then a Ph.D. in Sociology from the UW. Prior to attending graduate school, she worked in Nepal with a local NGO and with UNICEF advancing community nutrition and health. Maya was born and raised in Nepal. She serves on the Board of Directors at Nepal Seattle Society and The Mountaineers. She loves natural landscapes and engaging in outdoor activities.

Danielle is a mixed-race woman who had lived in eight states before entering high school. As such, her personal and professional interests have centered on the impact of community, belonging and identity on mental health. Danielle received her doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Washington. As a graduate student she interned for the Indigenous Wellness Research Institute and received a fellowship from the Indigenous Substance Abuse, Medicines and Addictions Research Training Program to complete her dissertation in conjunction with the Tribal College/University BeWell Study. Danielle completed her clinical psychology internship and post-doctoral fellowship as the Rural Health/Underserved Populations resident at the VA Pacific Islands Health Care System. At VA PIHCS, Danielle focused on in-person outreach and remote telehealth services to Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander veterans located in American Samoa, Guam, Saipan and the neighboring Hawaiian Islands. At Seven Directions, Danielle focuses on incorporating a clinical lens to technical assistance, evaluative assessment and inclusive programming work for the Tribal Opioid Overdose Prevention Project.  

Danielle is grateful to live in Hawaii and loves freediving and learning the environmentally sustainable practice of spearfishing.

Leo is currently working on several projects, including several sub-projects in the CDC-funded Tribal Opioid Overdose Prevention program, and Healthy Tribal Nations alcohol policy and violence against women study. He was the main liaison to Tribal Colleges and Universities partners on three past projects and has visited tribal communities to facilitate many on-site focus groups and conduct data collection. Through these site visits, he has witnessed first-hand the strengths and resilience of tribal communities, which in turn has informed his passion to Indigenous Public Health.

Leo has a Bachelor’s degree in Japanese & Chinese languages, and a Master’s in Business Administration. He has studied linguistics and four foreign languages, and is a strong advocate for indigenous language retention and revitalization. He also remembers how to diagram sentences from his 1960s English classes, and uses that skill to serve as the primary editor for Seven Directions’ publications and manuscripts.

On a personal note, he is an outdoor nut, hiking and going on 5-10 day backpacks to remote corners of North America, and snow-shoeing and cross-country skiing in winter. A non-car owner for 20+ years, he bicycles Seattle’s hilly terrain daily in rain or shine.

Angela Gaffney joined the Seven Directions team as a Senior Research Coordinator in 2022. Angela specializes in evaluation design and implementation as well as providing technical assistance to program staff and leadership.

Meg (she/her) joined Seven Directions in November 2023 as a Research Coordinator. She also works as a Research Coordinator with the Indigenous Wellness Research Institute at the University of Washington School of Social Work. Dr. MacDonald has worked at the UW for just over 20 years, starting at the Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity. She has a PhD in American History and American Studies from Indiana University.

Kase's family is Irish and Scottish, and they grew up along the shores of Lake Michigan in Wisconsin and Illinois. Their first steps into the world of public health were through a college environmental justice class taught alongside the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, and later by working as a counselor and harm reduction advocate in Chicago. Kase graduated from University of Washington in 2022 with their MPH in Social and Behavioral Sciences and an MSW in Community-Centered Integrative Practice. While in school, Kase’s research focused on social determinants of health, the impact of trauma on access to health care, and health equity among LGBTQ2S+ populations. Kase lives in Seattle with their partner Quetzie and cats Special Agent Dale Cooper and Bertie McEntire. In their free time, they can be found singing karaoke or playing Dungeons & Dragons.

Jacob has done research in evolutionary biology and public health. He is excited to be working with Seven Directions and increasing his skillset. Jacob is primarily involved with the research study Indigenous Healing + Health Systems: Revitalizing Inherent Alignment.

Jessica Kipp (she/they) is a member of the Blackfeet Tribe and was born and raised in Browning, Montana. Jessica is a graduate of the University of Montana, receiving a bachelor’s degree in psychology. She is currently a Research Coordinator at Seven Directions and works on the Tribal Opioid Overdose Prevention Project.

Marina Van Pelt (she/her) is a member of Pueblo de Cochiti and the Confederate Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation. She recently joined Seven Directions as a Research Coordinator, having previously worked as a graduate research assistant with the team. Marina is currently involved in the Canoe Journeys: Climate Change, Culture, & Healing for Native Youth pilot study and the Healthy Tribal Nations study. She is expected to graduate from UW in summer 2024 with a Master of Public Health, specializing in Health Systems and Policy. Her career goals include promoting the health and sovereignty of tribal communities and advancing indigenous public health research through community-based participatory research. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, paddle boarding, and spending time with her dog, Ollie.

Tori (she/her) recently graduated with her Bachelors of Science in Informatics from the University of Washington in June 2024. She is Southern Cheyenne, Polish, and Japanese American. She is particularly interested in using data science to address health disparities with a interest in genetics and precision medicine. Tori is a Research Coordinator at Seven Directions and is focusing on communications but is also working with the Indigenous Evaluation Toolkit (IET) and Bristol Meyers Squibb Foundation team, Native Collective Research Effort to Enhance Wellness, and some other projects.

Steven Nez (he/him) recently graduated with his Master’s in Public Health (MPH) from the University of Washington, Community-Oriented Public Health Practice (COPHP) program, class of 2024. He is Diné (Navajo) and Oneida (People of the Standing Stone) and has a particular interest in utilizing strength-based approaches to nourish Indigenous peoples’ ways of healing for their health and well-being. Steven is a Research Coordinator for Seven Directions working on conducting outreach and analyzing tribal policies within the Healthy Tribal Nations (HTN) project. He will also be working on analyzing qualitative data collected from the Pacific Northwest Canoe Journey.

Analisa (they/them)is a Tāp Pīlam Coahuiltecan and Kickapoo Indigenous student with a special interest in examining social determinants of health, health inequity and asset-based approaches. One of their main areas of interest has been maternal, infant and child health outcomes in low- resource settings rooted in barriers to care. Their academic work has primarily centered Indigenous, border and rural communities with an interest in addressing disparate rates of substance use through harm reduction. Analisa intends to utilize their lived experience to help address various issues marginalized demographic groups encounter in terms of representation in data, levels of access or barriers to appropriate care, tailored preventative health education and increasing care utilization rates among many other important intersectional efforts within the public health field.

Oakley comes from a family of Urban Indians who landed in rural Washington due to displacement during the boarding school era. They were raised with a reverence for land and community and have always loved to spend time with the trees and mountains. Oakley’s professional interest in Native wellness began in college with numerous projects related to Indigenous research methodologies and traditional healing practices, but their personal interest began as a youth through observance of health disparities within their own family. Oakley has been trained as a mental health provider and is deeply informed by concepts of historical and generational trauma, harm reduction, and collective healing practices. They live in Tacoma, WA and can be found anywhere by the water, reading a book.

Maddy (she/her) is excited to join Seven Directions as a student assistant. She is a graduating senior at the University of Washington majoring in Global-Public Health and minoring in Bioethics. Previously, she has done volunteering through the Indigenous Cancer Health Equity Initiative through Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Seven Directions resonates with her passion for Public Health and Indigenous health, and she is grateful to be able to further learn through this institute.

Madison Fulton (she/her) is an enrolled citizen of the Navajo Nation and is from the Rough Rock community. She is of the Black Sheep Clan and born for the Salt People Clan. Madison studied American Indian Studies at Arizona State University. She graduated with her Bachelors in 2013 and her Masters in 2015. From November 2015 to September 2023, Madison worked at the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, Inc. While at ITCA, Madison worked on grants from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Justice, Office of Violence Against Women. In 2022, Madison applied to the Master’s of Public Health program at the University of Minnesota, School of Public Health and was accepted. She is a current graduate student and is expected to graduate in May 2025. She is a current Board Member for the Southwest Indigenous Women’s Coalition and currently works for the Indian Health Services at the Phoenix Indian Medical Center.

Pedro (him/they), is a Maya Q’anjob’al, born and raised on Iipay and Payómkawichum lands (San Diego, CA) and finishing up concurrent Master's in Social Work and Master's in Public Health programs at the University of Washington this upcoming year. He supported various projects over the summer, primarily working as staff on the Healthy Tribal Nations study. Prior to returning to his graduate studies, he was project coordinator for a National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism grant focusing on youth substance use prevention and worked alongside rural, reservation-based, tribal communities to implement and evaluate multilevel interventions. Concentrating in Clinical Social Work and Social and Behavioral Sciences, Pedro hopes to end up practicing in the field of prevention science, developing culturally grounded interventions that address trauma-related health disparities within communities like his own.