TEC News

TEC News

5 Questions For Abigail Echo-Hawk

TEC News, TECs in the Media
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Medium

Abigail Echo-Hawk, MA, is an enrolled citizen of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma and is currently the director of the Urban Indian Health Institute and executive vice president of the Seattle Indian Health Board. What’s Next Health spoke with Ms. Echo-Hawk about her recent work to decolonize data — where Indigenous peoples and nations have ownership over the collection, management, and dissemination of their own data — which is supported in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

WNH Editors
May 24, 2023

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TEC Success Story: Public Health Authority 101

Success Stories, TEC News
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In this video presentation to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service (CMS) Tribal Technical Advisory Group (TTAG) Data Subcommittee on May 23, 2023, Meghan O’Connell, MD, MPH (Chief Public Health Officer of the Great Plains Tribal Leaders’ Health Board) and Chris Alibrandi O’Connor, JD (Deputy Director, Mid-States Region Office for The Network for Public Health Law) share the legal basis for Tribal Epidemiology Center’s (TEC) access to protected health information for public health purposes.

With the reauthorization of the Indian Healthcare Improvement Act in 2010, TECs were designated as “public health authorities” which allows TECs the same access to protected health information/data for public health purposes as other public health authorities, like state health departments.

These activities were supported through a variety of funding opportunities including the coordination and collaboration activities made possible by the Indian Health Service and the CDC’s Tribal Epidemiology Centers Public Health Infrastructure program, National Center for Chronic Disease and Prevention and Health Promotion, Healthy Tribes Program.

 

TEC Public Health Authority 101

 


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For more information about each of the 12 TECs, visit https://tribalepicenters.org/12-tecs/.

 

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OKTEC Success Story: Tribal Health Experiential Student Internship Seminar (THESIS)

Success Stories, TEC News
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The Southern Plains Tribal Health Board recently concluded its very first virtual internship cohort with 46 students who completed the virtual 8-week experience. The Tribal Health Experiential Student Internship Seminar (THESIS) program was one of seven organizations awarded, and the only program to focus solely on Tribal public health and Native American health.

 

The program gave undergraduate students nationwide a glimpse of working in Indian Country with first-hand accounts of staff actively employed in positions within Tribal nations, universities, TECs, health departments, and federal and other partnering Tribal organizations.

 

Funded by the CDC’s Office of Health Equity (OHE), students were led through a wide range of courses focusing on Tribal public health with a curriculum around evaluation, cultural competency, racial misclassification, data collection, epidemiology, and professional skills. Students also experienced being paired with a mentor, who guided them throughout the 8-weeks on a research poster project that would be presented at the CDC Lewis Ferguson Showcase in Atlanta, Georgia. Examples of research posters included topics over food deserts, culturally relevant Native youth curriculum, Native American oral health, mental health, and health disparities among Native American communities.

Through THESIS, students were not only exposed to tribal public health as a career but also to the diverse landscape that is public health. “We want students to be exposed to aspects of Native public health to gain different perspectives when choosing their profession. We often hear, ‘I wish I would have been taught that’ from working public health employees,” Gary Piercey, Program Coordinator, said. “This gives students a chance to really investigate some of the topics that are meaningful to them.”

Abby Mayes, a member of the Cherokee Nation stated, “I enjoyed the THESIS program greatly. I enjoyed the topics that were presented and was able to research how the COVID-19 pandemic directly impacted the Native American population within the state of Oklahoma in 2021. This internship gave me the opportunity to learn about Tribal Health, which I had yet to learn about from my previous public health courses in college.”

THESIS intern students at the CDC Showcase in Atlanta, GeorgiaTHESIS intern students at the CDC Showcase in Atlanta, Georgia.

Jordan Craig, a member of the Cherokee Nation, answers questions over her poster presentation, “Addressing Gaps in Prenatal Care for American Indian and Alaska Native People with Opioid Use Disorder.”Jordan Craig, a member of the Cherokee Nation, answers questions over her poster presentation, “Addressing Gaps in Prenatal Care for American Indian and Alaska Native People with Opioid Use Disorder.”


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If you know of an undergraduate student interested in Tribal public health, applications for the 2024 year will be available on October 1, 2023, at the website https://thesis.spthb.org/.

 

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Tribal Epidemiology Centers: At the Forefront of American Indian/Alaska Native Public Health

TEC News, TECs in the Media
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Sage Journals

In 2019, the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice published a supplement titled “Tribal Epidemiology Centers: Advancing Public Health in Indian Country for Over 20 Years,” which included articles from Tribal Epidemiology Centers (TECs) and contributions from other federal partners.

Laura D. Cassidy, PhD, MS, DenYelle Kenyon, PhD, Jamie Ritchey, PhD, MPH, Delores Becenti, BS, Aurimar Ayala, MPH, Tracy Prather, MHA, Kristen Mitchell-Box, DrPH, CPH
August 20, 2023

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Building a Roadmap to Health Equity: Strengthening Public Health Infrastructure in Indian Country

TEC News, TECs in the Media
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Sage Journals

American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities draw strength from Tribal culture and traditional ways of life, but social determinants of health, such as poverty, racial discrimination, unemployment, poor housing, and inadequate access to health care, contribute to persistent health disparities.

Julianna Reece, MD, MPH, MBA, Syreeta Skelton-Wilson, PhD, Kristen Mitchell-Box, DrPH, Amy Groom, MPH, Craig Thomas, PhD

August 11, 2023

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