Donna Grandbois, assistant professor of nursing at NDSU, presented an abstract at the National Institutes of Health Summit: The Science of Eliminating Health Disparities on Dec. 16-17 in National Harbor, Md. The Trans-National Institutes of Health Disparities Summit Planning Committee selected Grandbois’ abstract for a poster presentation. The abstract is titled “Resilience and Stereotyping: The Experiences of Native American Elders.”

Grandbois is new to the nursing faculty this year. She focuses her research on enhancing the comprehensive wellness of American Indian people, communities and tribes. She was awarded a 2008 postdoctoral fellowship from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration/Administration for Native Americans.

In the future, she plans to partner with tribal communities using community-based participatory research methodologies to help restore the resilience of American Indian people.

She has taught both mental health theory and was a psychiatric clinical instructor at the University of North Dakota from 2001-06. In 2007, she was the campus faculty coordinator of an electronic Diversity Discussion Forum at UND. Grandbois also has served as co-investigator and tribal liaison on a reservation research project that sought to define health and illness among American Indians experiencing severe and persistent mental illness.