Sovereignty Speaks #36
Nutrition
Dr. Valarie Blue Bird Jernigan
Director of the Center for Indigenous Health Research and Policy for the OSU Center for Health Sciences
Valarie Blue Bird Jernigan is a community-based participatory researcher trained in intervention science with the goal of combining research with action for social change. Dr. Jernigan received her doctorate in public health from the University of California, Berkeley, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in cardiovascular disease prevention at Stanford University, where she also completed a degree in documentary filmmaking. Valarie is the principal investigator of four National Institute of Health (NIH)-funded R01 studies aimed to improve Indigenous food environments including “THRIVE,” a randomized trial of healthy makeovers in tribally owned convenience stores, and “FRESH,” a food sovereignty intervention currently being implemented with Osage Nation. Dr. Jernigan is a standing member of the Community Level Health Promotion Study Section for the NIH and a member of the College of Reviewers for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Dr. Jernigan is a Professor of Rural Health at the Center for Health Sciences, Oklahoma State University, and Director of the Center for Indigenous Health Research and Policy. She is a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.