Finding Your Narrative
The 2018 Population Health Research Summit is shaping up to be a truly exciting event. The planning committee was unsure of how to follow up with last year's Summit, which was amazing from start-to-finish. We all reflected, connected, and left the 2017 Summit feeling inspired. After many meaningful discussions and a few polls, the planning committee decided that the theme would be Finding Your Narrative, which was inspired from last year's Summit and one of the speakers, Dr. Malia Villegas, who shared with us the importance of learning how to tell our stories as researchers and community members.
From the pre-conference workshop on scientific storytelling to the CRCAIH Tribal Partners sharing the stories of their unique journeys over the past six years, you will see the theme reflected throughout the upcoming Summit. I challenge you to think of what your narrative looks like. What led you to where you are now and how do you keep moving forward? If you are a researcher, you may be surprised that I'm asking you to find your narrative and tell a story about your research; however, I'm confident that by the end of the 2018 Summit, you will understand how important it is, especially if you work with American Indian or rural communities.
One of our speakers this year is Abigail Echo-Hawk from the Urban Indian Health Institute in Seattle. I have had the pleasure of listening to her speak in the past and her words have stuck with me for a long time. She reminded me that in order to help my community, I must be able to talk about my research and my research results in ways that are meaningful to them. In other words, maybe I should find my narrative.
For those of us who are involved in research in any capacity and who may be frustrated by the lack of interest or excitement when it comes to understanding or participating in our research, I ask you this: how can we expect others to be interested in our research if we are unable to help them see its importance and potential benefits? Wouldn't it be nice if we found our narrative and knew how to tell a story that shows the positive impact our research can have on health outcomes?
If you haven't registered for the 2018 Population Health Research Summit yet, don't worry, there is still time! We are accepting submissions for the poster session and applications for travel scholarships to attend (deadline is March 16).
To register, submit a poster, or find out information on the scholarships check out crcaih.org/summit
Up next: Hear from Anita Frederick from Tribal Nations Research Group about their conference coming up in March.
Michaela Seiber, MPH
Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate
CRCAIH Regulatory Knowledge Core
I will be your fearless blog leader and sincerely look forward to feedback, questions, suggestions for topics, cat pictures, and anyone interested in possibly being a guest writer.
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