Get Excited About DOS Year III - Career Pathway Planning

On Friday the production team and I traveled to Seattle to interview Karina Walters. Her interview is the second to be recorded for our current Discovering Our Story (DOS) project series, focused on career pathway planning.

The first, recorded back in August at the annual Association of American Indian Physicians (AAIP) meeting, was with Dr. Kevin Goodluck - an MD from Albuquerque, NM. Check out the AAIP's website - http://www.aaip.org/ - for updates on next year's meeting in Anchorage, Ak.

Karina Walters, PhD (Choctaw), is the Director of the Indigenous Wellness Research Institute (IWRI), which is based out of the School of Social Work at the University of Washington. the IWRI vision is to support the inherent

rights of Indigenous peoples to achieve full and complete health and wellness by collaborating in decolonizing research and knowledge building and sharing. Check out some of their awesome research at www.iwri.org. Among their many projects, Karina is currently working on an investigation of heart health across generations in native communities and the Indigenous HIV/AIDS Research Training program, which aims to increase the number of AI/AN health researchers to successfully garner major grant funding for health issues that are tribal priorities.

Get excited for the third year of DOS, being produced this spring!

On a bus

Hi folks,

A minor update from the Wisdom VISTAs world. We've been attempting to get out in the world as much as possible. Pictured is Isobel and Emma on a bus to a Talking Circle on Indigenous Sustainability put on by PSU for their Social Sustainablity Month program, this is fitting since November was also Native American heritage month throughout the country. It turned out to be a great talk with Judy Bluehorse Skelton speaking with great articulation on the subject. A number of the VISTAs went to the Confederated Tribes of the Umitilla Indian Reservation for Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) facilitation. This too was a wonderful event, with lots of new insight on CBPR and facilitation in the Native community. Well that's enough for now, I hope everyone is enjoying the sunny (but crisp) days this week. Until next time. -Jacob