The event celebrates the 2019 National Native American Heritage Month through a seminar on research promoting the health and wellbeing of American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities. Using data from NIH funded studies, Dr. Melissa Walls will describe trajectories of early life course substance use, mental health challenges, and enduring mental health among Indigenous people in North America.

About Dr. Melissa Walls

Dr. Melissa Walls, Director of the Great Lakes Hub for the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health and Associate Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, joins a THRO lecture to celebrate the 2019 National Native American Heritage Month. She is a member of the Bois Forte and Couchiching First Nation Anishinaabe Bands. Dr. Walls has over a decade of experience working with Tribal communities to understand the social and historical determinants of health for Indigenous families. Through her work in Tribal clinics, Dr. Walls and her team translate research outcomes to influence the development of culturally relevant policies and programs that improve the health of Native American populations. Her involvement in community-based participatory research projects include mental health epidemiology; culturally-relevant, family-based substance use prevention and mental health promotion programming and evaluation; and examining the effects of stress and mental health on diabetes. Dr. Walls is a principal investigator for NIH Research Project Grants, a member of the National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse, former NIH fellow, and mentor to American Indian students. She was recognized by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as an Interdisciplinary Research Leader.

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