{"id":6772,"date":"2022-11-09T16:24:02","date_gmt":"2022-11-09T23:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nau.edu\/center-health-equity-research\/?p=6772"},"modified":"2024-07-01T14:37:23","modified_gmt":"2024-07-01T21:37:23","slug":"janet-yellowhair-spotlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/center-community-health-engaged-research\/blog\/janet-yellowhair-spotlight\/","title":{"rendered":"CHER spotlight: Janet Yellowhair"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Janet<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

When Janet Yellowhair<\/strong> was young, she spent many hours watching her mother working as a medical support assistant in the Indian Health Service facility in Kayenta, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI observed how she advocated for patients to receive quality healthcare and connected patients to services,\u201d said Yellowhair. \u201cI saw her being a kind and a familiar face to people in our community and I wanted to play a similar role among my Indigenous people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yellowhair followed her mother\u2019s inspiration and traveled the public health path with a focus on research. After recently completing a Master of Public Health\u2013Indigenous Health Track from Northern Arizona University, Yellowhair is now herself quickly becoming a kind and familiar face at the Center for Community Health and Engaged Research<\/a> (CHER) where she works as a research coordinator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI chose the public health field because of the various ways I could contribute to improving the health of my Indigenous people,\u201d Yellowhair said. \u201cI also felt that it would allow me to be an advocate for promoting health equity and quality health care in Indigenous populations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A non-traditional student, she returned to school to earn a bachelor\u2019s degree in public health after two of her children were born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy husband and children have always been my biggest supporters,\u201d she said. \u201cThey were so happy for me when I was offered this job because they know how much I enjoy being a part of a research community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yellowhair said that at the end of her bachelor\u2019s program in public health, she was looking for an internship when positions opened at the Partnership for Native American Cancer Prevention<\/a> (NACP). She said she was drawn to NACP because of their cancer research among Indigenous populations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy experiences with NACP developed me as a researcher and cultivated my drive to pursue a graduate degree,\u201d Yellowhair said. \u201cMy mentors at NACP, Dr. Dirk de Heer<\/strong> and Dr. Nicolette Teufel-Shone<\/strong>, were a great resource and support throughout my educational endeavors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yellowhair said her NACP mentors encouraged her to continue her education and earn her Master of Public Health\u2013Indigenous Health track. Teufel-Shone, associate director of CHER, said that she believes that Yellowhair has the resilience and empathy to make a difference in Indigenous health and in the lives of the people around her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPerhaps unknown to her, Janet is a consistent source of inspiration to her peers,\u201d Teufel-Shone said. \u201cAs a wife and a mother, she juggled multiple responsibilities and proved that it is never too late to pursue your dreams. She brings a determination to solve problems\u2013\u2013applying her signature cheerful and respectful style.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yellowhair said she chose to continue at NAU because she had established great relationships at the university and knew she could reach out to her mentors for advice and support during the graduate program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel that having established a mentor before entering the program helped alleviate some stress and uncertainty that might come along with starting a graduate degree,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her master\u2019s program, she said she felt like her experience was unique because her cohort started the program in August 2020, during the height of the global pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe learned early on how to adapt and overcome stressful circumstances,\u201d Yellowhair said. \u201cI also appreciated and enjoyed how the program was tailored for me to know how to best serve Indigenous communities upon the completion of my degree.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yellowhair said she hopes to continue growing with CHER and contributing to research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe thing I love most about working for CHER is the people I get to work with,\u201d she said. \u201cEveryone in CHER is highly motivated and it only encourages me to always try my best.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Janet Yellowhair was young, she spent many hours watching her mother working as a medical support assistant in the Indian Health Service facility in Kayenta, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation. \u201cI observed how she advocated for patients to receive quality healthcare and connected patients to services,\u201d said Yellowhair. \u201cI saw her being a kind […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":286,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[544],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/center-community-health-engaged-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6772"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/center-community-health-engaged-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/center-community-health-engaged-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/center-community-health-engaged-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/286"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/center-community-health-engaged-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6772"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/center-community-health-engaged-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14177,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/center-community-health-engaged-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6772\/revisions\/14177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/center-community-health-engaged-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/center-community-health-engaged-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/center-community-health-engaged-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}