Katie A. Schultz

Dr. Katie Schultz focuses her research on health equity among American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) populations. She examines violence and associated health outcomes, including substance misuse, among AI/AN women and girls; community and cultural connectedness as protective factors; and culturally-grounded interventions. A citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, she is interested in innovative conceptual and methodological research with tribal communities rooted in Indigenous knowledges and sustainable solutions by and for Native peoples. She is principal investigator on a study that seeks to identify risk pathways and key correlates, including cultural beliefs and practices, associated with reduced recidivism among AI/AN individuals with justice-involvement in Alaska (NIDA; R21DA050518). She is a principal investigator on another mixed methods study that examines the extent to which existing social network theories and data metrics adequately characterize AI youth networks and associations with risk and protective factors for substance use, exposure to violence, and suicide (NIDA; R21DA053789). She is also a faculty affiliate with the Vivian A. and James L. Curtis School of Social Work Center for Health Equity Research and Training at the University of Michigan School, where she is co-leading a collaboration with Uniting Three Fires Against Violence, a statewide tribal domestic violence and sexual assault coalition, to develop research to address violence and health equity among tribal communities in Michigan.

Schultz received her MSW and PhD from the University of Washington. Prior to her PhD, she was the administrative director at the University’s Indigenous Wellness Research Institute. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the Center for Mental Health Services at Washington University in St. Louis.

Research Interests: American Indian and Alaska Native health equity; violence, substance misuse and associated health outcomes; historical trauma; community and cultural connectedness as stress buffers; culturally-grounded prevention and interventions; and community-based participatory and mixed methods research.