Born and raised in the Menominee Nation of Wisconsin, Dr. Fernandez has built her research agenda on nearly two decades of combined national and international social work, and public health practice and service with Indigenous, Latinx and other minoritized communities in inpatient and outpatient health care settings, academic settings, non-profit organizations and the Peace Corps. As an Indigenous and Latinx prevention scientist, she examines whether participation in cultural practices that are dependent upon nature contact can be protective in the prevention of chronic, co-occurring, and syndemic diseases (e.g. mental health, substance abuse, diabetes) among Indigenous peoples.
She has 10 years of experience working on federally funded (NIH, SAMHSA), collaborative research projects, focused on prevention of mental health, substance use, sexual risk, cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes, from design through dissemination. Her long-term goals are to build on this knowledge and better define the role of engagement in Indigenous cultural practices that are dependent upon nature contact in prevention, and to respond to the significant gap in culturally informed measures that can be used to evaluate chronic, co-occurring and syndemic health outcomes within culturally-grounded health interventions.
As a second year postdoc, she is currently exploring internal funding opportunities to conduct a pilot study, and is also exploring external funding (i.e., National Institutes of Health). Results from this formative research will inform a future R01 application focused on developing and testing the efficacy of a cultural practice and nature contact-based prevention intervention for chronic, co-occurring and syndemic diseases among Indigenous communities.
Fernandez also has 15 years of combined experience teaching and mentoring undergraduate and graduate students in academic, professional and community contexts. As a doctoral teaching assistant and sole instructor, she received outstanding student evaluations and departmental and university-wide nominations for teaching awards. She continues to mentor, present and guest lecture for graduate students across the country.
Historical, social and environmental determinants of health; Indigenous and Latinx health; cultural protective factors; environmental health; community-based participatory research; decolonizing methodologies; mixed methods; public health social work; mental health, substance use, HIV, diabetes.
Phone | Room | Address | |
---|---|---|---|
(734) 763-1643 | angefern@umich.edu | 3747 SSWB | University of Michigan School of Social Work 1080 S. University Ave. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 |
Year | Degree | School | |
---|---|---|---|
2019 | PhD | Social Work | University of Washington, Seattle |
2019 | MPH | Public Health | University of Washington, Seattle |
2007 | MSW | Social Work | University of Washington, Seattle |
2006 | BSW | Social Work | University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee |
Fernandez, A. R. (in press). The eagle, the condor, and who I am among all my relations. In H. N. Weaver (Ed.), Routledge Handbook on Indigenous Resilience. Routledge.
University of Michigan
School of Social Work
1080 South University Avenue
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1106