Meet Our Team

She also serves as Co-Director of the Indigenous Wellness Research Institute’s Tribal Protocols and Ethics Division. She has worked for fourteen years on tribal public health program implementation, coordination, and research with tribal communities in Arizona, Idaho, and Washington.  Prior to her work in research, she worked for five years in the policy arena within Arizona state government, in tribal governments, and with tribal working groups at the state and national level. Her research experience in public health involves Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) and disparities research. 

Dr. Parker serves as Co-Investigator on an ETHICS project to culturally adapt a human subjects curriculum for tribal communities; a national epidemiology research study grounded in CBPR involving twenty-five 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 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 dedicated to community, inter-generational health and well-being that comes from a deep connection to place, people, and time. Born and raised in Arizona, Christina has nearly twenty years of experience as a public health practitioner working for Indigenous nations, tribal communities, and regional tribal organizations in the U.S., Guam, and Mexico. She received her DrPH in public health policy & management from University of Arizona, Zuckerman College of Public Health. Her dissertation was titled, “Indigenous health systems: An emergent Yaqui-centered framework for public health practice.”

Christina joins our team from the Pascua Yaqui Tribe’s Health Services Division where she supported self-governance, data infrastructure, and public health accreditation initiatives as a performance management/quality improvement analyst. Christina is a founding member of the UA American Indian Indigenous health Alliance and member of the US Indigenous Data Sovereignty Network. Christina is Quechua-mestizo (Peru) and Irish (Arizona).

She lives in Tucson, Arizona with her family, partner Joseph; children, Munai and Tenzin; and father, Horacio Oré Giron. She loves to walk in the desert, hike in the mountains, and spend time with her extended family and friends.

Maya's scholarship intersects sociology, public health and geography in addressing social inequities with an intention of fostering knowledge democracy and holistic approaches to wellbeing. For almost a decade, she has collaborated on several NIH-, CDC- and tribally-funded research, evaluation and technical assistance projects with multi-disciplinary cross-institutional teams investigating resiliency, cultural strength and social determinants of behavioral health and non-communicable disease disparities in the American Indian and Alaska Native, immigrant and refugee communities in the US. 

Recently, Maya's research work has expanded into global arena looking at water insecurity and environmental health in Nepal. In between receiving a Bachelor’s degree in Nutrition from Australia, and Master (with Fulbright scholarship) and Ph.D in Sociology from the UW, she worked with a local NGO and with UNICEF in Nepal advancing community nutrition and health.  

Mays loves being outside hiking and backpacking on land. She is working on my swimming skills to be able to explore the myriads of bodies of water in the Puget Sound and beyond.

He has been the project liaison with TCU partners and has visited communities to facilitate many on-site focus groups. Through these community visits, he has seen health disparities first-hand, 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.

On a personal note, he is an outdoor nut, hiking and going on week-long backpacks to remote corners of North America, and snow-shoeing and cross-country skiing in winter locally. A non-car owner for 16 years, he bicycles Seattle’s hilly terrain daily in rain or shine.

During her time as a student at UW, she has interned for the Indigenous Wellness Research Institute and supported multiple ongoing research projects. She also served as the Director of the American Indian Student Commission where she advocated and developed programming with other student minority populations. In 2018, Danielle was selected as a National Congress of American Indian Graduate Health Fellow which focuses on strengthening the next generation of tribal public health leaders.

Outside of UW, Danielle can be found at Seattle Boxing Gym or in her apartment painting. Her most recent art series was painted while listening to the sounds of Solange, Rosanne Cash, and Lil B.

As an undergraduate, Sofia worked on strengthening the emergency medical care system for indigenous families in Paraguay, decreasing the incidence rates of HIV/AIDS in Tanzania, and on neonatal health and violence against women initiatives in India. Most recently, she has been involved in the implementation of a program addressing intergenerational trauma and child mental health among Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

Sofia received a Bachelor’s degree from Stanford University in Anthropology, with a minor in Human Biology. She speaks Hindi and Italian, loves design thinking and improv, and enjoys coaching gymnastics to young girls.

After earning her BA in Sociology at University of California, Santa Cruz, Rachel worked as a residential counselor at a group home for teen girls, where she witnessed first hand the intersections and failures of California's juvenile justice and foster care systems. This experience led her to pursue dual degrees in social work and public health, and she hopes to use her training in community-centered integrative practices to advocate for more community-based, restorative practices that benefit collective health.

At Seven Directions, Rachel is involved with helping conduct tribal community health assessments, supporting the building of communities of practice, conducting literature reviews, and survey administration.

Outside of her studies, Rachel works as a Mental Health Specialist with folks experiencing homelessness at Edward Thomas House Medical Respite, plays competitive roller derby, and enjoys spending time in the mountains. She also loves to dabble in learning new languages, including Yiddish and American Sign Language. Rachel is grateful for the opportunity to work amongst and learn from the other staff and students at Seven Directions.

They have since served two terms of AmeriCorps, first in Coos Bay, OR, then in Tacoma, WA, have owned and operated Pizza Pi Vegan Pizzeria on "The Ave" near the UW in Seattle, and completed a post-baccalaureate degree in economics here at the UW where they are currently a Masters student of Urban Planning.

In their free time, Casandra enjoys sampling local brews, bicycling and coordinating a summer music education program for youth: Tacoma Girls Rock. They are interested in learning more about how zoning and land use codes on sovereign lands contribute to health, and is excited to be a part of the 7 Directions Research Team. 

Rana received their undergraduate degree in Cognitive Science from the University of California Davis and is currently working on the environmental scan for the Tribal Opioid Project.