Deana Around Him, DrPH, ScM, is a research scholar leading the development of Child Trends’ applied research agenda to advance the well-being of Indigenous children, youth, and families. Her work specifically aims to improve the well-being of American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) children and families through culturally and scientifically rigorous research and evaluation. Dr. Around Him’s lived experience as a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, mother, and relative inform a career that respects Tribal sovereignty, builds on cultural strengths, and seeks to inform the policies and programs encountered by Indigenous families.

Dr. Around Him’s training focused on the social determinants of health, the life course approach to health, maternal and child health, and research ethics. She has worked with AIAN communities to develop and adapt interventions, build research and evaluation capacity, and strengthen research ethics knowledge and infrastructure. Dr. Around Him often applies community-engaged and community-based participatory research (CBPR) approaches in her work. Her past projects have involved partnerships to prevent adverse childhood experiences, trauma, and youth suicide; evaluate a culturally based safe infant sleep intervention; and explore American Indian student perspectives of school climate. Her current projects focus on evaluating a culturally based parent training curriculum, examining how home visiting has supported equity during the COVID-19 pandemic, and integrating Indigenous research methodologies and approaches in early childhood research and practice. She is also the strategic dissemination lead for the Tribal Early Childhood Research Center.

In 2022, Dr. Around Him was selected as an Ascend Fellow at the Aspen Institute. Outside of Child Trends, she is an adjunct faculty member at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Community Health from Brown University, a Master of Science with a concentration in maternal and child health from the Harvard School of Public Health, and a Doctor of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.