Indigenous and Tribal Social Work Educators’ Association
Our Board Members
Hilary N. Weaver
Hilary N. Weaver, DSW (Lakota) currently serves as President of the Indigenous and Tribal Social Work Educators Association, Chair of the Council on Social Work Education board of directors, and Global Indigenous Commissioner for International Federation of Social Workers. She was inducted as a Social Work Pioneer in 2020 by the National Association of Social Workers Foundation, named the American Public Health Association’s Public Health Social Worker of the Year in 2020, and received the. American Indian Elder Award from the Indigenous and Tribal Social Work Educators Association in 2017. Dr. Weaver is Professor Emeritus in the School of Social Work, University at Buffalo (State University of New York). She received her BS from Antioch College in social work with a cross-cultural studies focus and her MSW and DSW from Columbia University. Her teaching, research, and service focus on cultural issues in the helping process with an emphasis on Indigenous populations. Dr. Weaver received funding from the National Cancer Institute to develop and test a culturally grounded wellness curriculum for urban Native American youth, the Healthy Living in Two Worlds program. Dr. Weaver has presented her work regionally, nationally, and internationally including presenting at the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at the United Nations more than a dozen times. She has numerous publications including the text, Explorations in Cultural Competence: Journeys to the Four Directions (2005), the edited book, Social Issues in Contemporary Native America: Reflections from Turtle Island (2014), Trauma and Resilience in the Lives of Contemporary Native Americans: Reclaiming our Balance, Restoring our Wellbeing (2019), and the edited volume Routledge International Handbook of Indigenous Resilience (2022).
CATHERINE E. O`CONNOR
​Catherine E. O’Connor (formerly McKinley/Burnette), Professor at Tulane University's School of Social Work, specializes in community-based participatory research with Indigenous populations. She is the Principal Investigator for the NIH-funded clinical trial Chukka Auchaffi’ Natana (Choctaw for Weaving Healthy Families), which promotes wellness and resilience while addressing substance abuse and violence prevention. Her recent work includes the 2023 book Understanding Indigenous Gender Relations and Violence Against Indigenous Women: Becoming Gender AWAke, introducing the "Living AWAke" workshop as an extension of the ecological Framework of Historical Oppression, Resilience, and Transcendence (FHORT). Since joining Tulane in 2013, Dr. O'Connor has published nearly 100 peer-reviewed articles, two books, and presented at over 70 national and international conferences. A recipient of the NIH Loan Repayment Program, she has been deeply involved in federally-funded research addressing violence and health disparities through culturally relevant interventions.
PAMELA L. BEGAY
Pamela L. Begay, PhD, LCSW is Director of the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies, Associate Professor of Practice, and chairs the AIAN concentration at Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Begay is a member of the Dine (Navajo) Nation and grew up in both Shiprock, NM and Long Beach, CA. She received her PhD in clinical social work from Smith College School for Social Work. In her career and practice, Dr. Begay has worked in several capacities such as in a tribal court, community-focused work, group practice, private practice, clinical director of a tribal program and taught in both BSW and MSW programs. Her interests are in the area of trauma treatment, visibility, mentoring, and cultural identity.
CARENLEE BARKDULL
Carenlee Barkdull, PhD, LMSW, is a Professor in the Department of Social Work at the University of North Dakota. She has engaged in numerous research and service projects promoting policy and cross-systems changes to improve child and family outcomes, including current collaborative work that aims to reverse the over-representation of Native American children in foster care in North Dakota, and to support the capacity-building efforts of Tribal child welfare systems. Additionally, she has long been engaged in efforts to support the recruitment and retention of Native social work students, and to work collaboratively with Native students, alums, and Tribal partners to improve social work implicit and explicit curricula.
ROBERT "BOB" PRUE
Dr. Robert ‘Bob’ Prue is an Associate Professor of Social Work at the University of Missouri Kansas City, School of Social Work. Dr. Prue served as Chair of the Social Work Department in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Program Director for the UMKC Master of Social Work Program from 2015 to 2019. Dr. Prue is currently collaborating with UMKC School of Medicine to expand access to rural Missourians and American Indian Tribes and Communities in the Region. Prior to coming to UMKC Dr. Prue worked in community organizing in the Haskell Indian Nations University/Douglas County American Indian Community to combat sexual violence and support healthy relationships and sexual safety. Dr. Prue has extensive social work practice history with individuals with severe and persistent mental illness.
Dr. Prue received a Ph.D. in Social Work from the University Of Kansas School Of Social Welfare in July 2008. His research has focused on the interface of American Indian and Mainstream systems of care. Dr. Prue has published research on the effect of the Native American Church involvement on alcohol abuse outcomes. Dr. Prue has looked at the effect of the passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1994 on involvement with the traditional use of peyote by American Indians. Dr. Prue has also published on the topic of American Indian supports for veterans. Dr. Prue has also published book chapters relating to the Native American Church, the use of peyote by American Indians, and the history of the Social Work profession with American Indians. Dr. Prue has developed an adaptation of Narrative therapy based on a synthesis of Narrative Exposure Therapy and the use of Plains Indians Winter Counts techniques.Dr. Prue has also recently presented at the Indigenous and Tribal Social Work Educators Association on the similarities that traditional Indigenous ways of knowledge generation have with modern qualitative research methods.
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Dr. Prue is an alumni of the Council on Social Work Education—Minority Fellowship Program and was a member of their Doctoral Committee Advisory Board for 6 years, serving in a mentorship role with a number of Indigenous Social Work doctoral candidates.
He serves on the Board of the Kansas City Indian Center and is a member of the Veteran’s Advocacy Committee For Mental Health at the Kansas City VA hospital.
Dr. Prue is an Citizen of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe of Indians.
JENNIFER RUSSELL
Bio to come...​
KRISTI KA`APU
Kristi Ka`apu is a DSW (2024) graduate from Tulane University and currently serves as the Program Manager for the NIH-funded clinical trial titled “Chukka Auchaffi’ Natana (In Choctaw: The Weaving Healthy Families Program to Promote Wellness and Resilience and Prevent Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse and Violence”. Her research focuses on Indigenous populations, resilience, and issues related to gender and sexuality. Kristi is Native Hawaiian and also a licensed clinical social worker with extensive experience in various areas of mental health and healthcare.​
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MESCHELLE LINJEAN
Meschelle Linjean (Cherokee Nation) is a PhD candidate at the University at Buffalo School of Social Work, from which she earned her MSW in 2020. Her dissertation research focuses on the significance of relationships with land and place in Indigenous adoptee reunification. She recently published results from her narrative study with Indigenous adult adoptees, for which she received a university award for Excellence in Research, Scholarship and Creativity. She has also published essays about the Indian Child Welfare Act and Haaland v. Brackeen. She is a member of the Indigenous and Tribal Social Work Educators Association and co-developed the Council on Social Work Education’s Teaching Guide: Repairing Harms Done to Indigenous and Tribal Peoples. Meschelle has presented her work locally and nationally. She has provided social services in public health organizations, evaluated federal education programs for Native Peoples, and provided technical assistance to Tribal recipients of federal education grants. She completed field placements in a county foster care system and an Indian Health Service-contracted Urban Indian Health Program. She previously obtained an MA in Sociology from New Mexico State University, during which she conducted mixed methods research on the adoption and reconnection experiences of Indigenous adoptees. Meschelle also holds a BA in Anthropology from the University of California.​
Hilary N. Weaver, DSW (Lakota) currently serves as President of the Indigenous and Tribal Social Work Educators Association, Chair of the Council on Social Work Education board of directors, and Global Indigenous Commissioner for International Federation of Social Workers. She was inducted as a Social Work Pioneer in 2020 by the National Association of Social Workers Foundation, named the American Public Health Association’s Public Health Social Worker of the Year in 2020, and received the. American Indian Elder Award from the Indigenous and Tribal Social Work Educators Association in 2017. Dr. Weaver is Professor Emeritus in the School of Social Work, University at Buffalo (State University of New York). She received her BS from Antioch College in social work with a cross-cultural studies focus and her MSW and DSW from Columbia University. Her teaching, research, and service focus on cultural issues in the helping process with an emphasis on Indigenous populations. Dr. Weaver received funding from the National Cancer Institute to develop and test a culturally grounded wellness curriculum for urban Native American youth, the Healthy Living in Two Worlds program. Dr. Weaver has presented her work regionally, nationally, and internationally including presenting at the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at the United Nations more than a dozen times. She has numerous publications including the text, Explorations in Cultural Competence: Journeys to the Four Directions (2005), the edited book, Social Issues in Contemporary Native America: Reflections from Turtle Island (2014), Trauma and Resilience in the Lives of Contemporary Native Americans: Reclaiming our Balance, Restoring our Wellbeing (2019), and the edited volume Routledge International Handbook of Indigenous Resilience (2022).