Two Indigenous public health graduate students win 2026 Haury awards to fund research
Two Indigenous public health doctoral students, Bree Lameman and Alison Watson, both Diné, won an "Indigenous Resilience Graduate Research Award" from the Agnes Nelms Haury Program at the University of Arizona to help fund their research.
Two public health doctoral students, Breanna (Bree) Lameman, MPH (Diné), and Alison Watson, MS (Diné), won the 2026 Indigenous Resilience Graduate Research Award from the Agnes Nelms Haury Program at the University of Arizona. The award funds graduate students conducting research on Indigenous environmental resilience.
Bree Lameman, MPH
Bree, a PhD student in the Health Behavior Health Promotion program, received the Haury Indigenous Resilience Graduate Research Award to support research for her dissertation titled Strengthening Diné Food Systems: Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Agricultural Innovation for Dine Food Sovereignty, Health, and Community Wellbeing. Her advisor Dr. Nicole Yuan, associate professor in the College of Public Health, guides her on the project.
Her research investigates how Indigenous farmers and Native-led agriculture organizations in the Navajo Nation are adapting to climate change, engaging with agriculture technologies, and articulating the cultural, governance, and relational priorities that inform Diné food sovereignty and Indigenous data sovereignty through talking circles and a community survey. Findings will be returned to the Navajo Nation through culturally grounded reporting and community-based dissemination strategies, assuring that the research directly supports community decision making and contributes to Diné food sovereignty and climate resilience.
Bree won two awards to fund her research, learn more in this announcement.
Alison Watson, MS
Alison is a PhD student in the Environmental Health Sciences program in the Department of Community, Environment, and Policy (CEP). She received the Haury Indigenous Resilience Graduate Research Award in combination with a special Director’s Fund allocation to support her dissertation titled, Investigating Early Life Arsenic Exposure in Yaqui Communities. Her advisor Dr. Paloma Beamer, Associate Dean of Community Engagement and Professor in the College of Public Health, will guide her on this project.
Alison’s research examines the effect of arsenic exposure on early life lung function development in association with pulmonary biomarkers through collected environmental samples from Yaqui communities in Sonora, Mexico. Arsenic is a naturally occurring element that is present in the environment and can cause adverse health effects when exposed to humans for long periods of time. The Yaqui tribe in Sonora face challenges such as arsenic contaminated water sources that contribute to environmental health disparities for Indigenous communities.
The goal of this study is to improve understanding on the health effects caused by arsenic exposure, as well as facilitate public health interventions to reduce environmental exposure and toxicity in these communities and regions. This study builds on prior work focused on arsenic exposures in the Southwest region in hopes of formulating a culturally refined arsenic risk assessment that may be utilized for other Indigenous communities in the Southwest and Sonoran region.
Congratulations to Bree and Alison on their awards and we wish them great success on their thesis projects!