Country of Origin:
United States
Native American
(Mi’Kmaq)
WLS Award:
2006-2007
About:
Graduate Program: Master’s Program in Intercultural Service, Leadership and Management at the School for International Training (SIT) in Vermont
Background & Goals: Jamie Arsenault is interested in gender studies, social justice, community health, as well as poverty and inequality issues. Arsenault’s main focus has been in the study of chronic conditions, specifically Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), particularly in American Indian women and how their experience is framed by access to resources, such as healthy food, medical care and information. Arsenault has been the recipient of a variety of scholarships and has presented a number of papers at various symposiums. She wishes to assist indigenous communities in starting culturally relevant health programs and the creation of traditional food programs.
Post-Degree Projects: Arsenault completed her Master’s Program in Intercultural Service, Leadership and Management at the School for International Training (SIT) in Vermont. Following the completion of her degree, Arsenault accepted a position as a Research Analyst for the Native Nations Institute (NNI). NNI is part of the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy located at the University of Arizona and is a sister-organization of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development at Harvard University. One of Arsenault’s primary research areas at NNI is health care quality and access in American Indian communities.
Arsenault wrote her Master’s thesis on the presence and possible causal factors of chronic illness in indigenous communities in the United States. During her studies, Arsenault also assisted the White Earth Land Recovery Project in the design and implementation of a research study that attempts to measure the effects of a traditional Ojibwe diet on Ojibwe adults with type II diabetes. Additionally, Arsenault was chosen to facilitate and enhance the curricula of several academic courses including Indigenous Peoples: Displacement; Rights, Cultures and Systems in Health Care; and Leadership, Community and Coalition Building. Arsenault remains an active member of the Five College Repatriation Committee based in Amherst, Massachusetts, which involves the return of human remains and sacred items to Native nations.
