Research at the Speed of Trust: A Guide for Researchers and Native Communities recently received the Communicator Award of Excellence in the Social Impact-Institutional category from the Academy of Interactive & Visual Arts.

Published in March 2023 by the National American Indian and Alaska Native Prevention Technology Transfer Center, the guide is intended to help researchers and Indigenous communities understand some of the complexities they may encounter and elements they must consider when approaching research with Native populations.

Primary authors are Sergei Deptula, research assistant for the Native Center for Behavioral Health; Dara L. Jefferson (Northern Arapaho and Meskwaki), PhD candidate in the College of Public Health; Meg Schneider, communications manager for the Native Center for Behavioral Health; C. Allison Baez (Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation), program coordinator for the National AI/AN PTTC; and Anne Helene Skinstad, clinical professor of community and behavioral health and director of the National AI/AN PTTC.  

Significant contributions also were made by Cam Marsengill, communications coordinator; Jacque Gray, (Choctaw and Cherokee descent), interim co-director of the National AI/AN PTTC; Kathy Tomlin (Cheyenne River Sioux), interim co-director of the National AI/AN Addiction TTC and National AI/AN Mental Health TTC; and Maurine A. Lilleskov (Luo Tribe, Kenya), interim co-director of the National AI/AN Childhood Trauma TSA.

Rima Afifi, professor of community and behavioral health and director of the UI Prevention Research Center for Rural Health, inspired the publication’s title, as she often tells her students that research happens at the speed of trust.