Training

Center for American Indian Health
Training & Scholarship Program

We are excited to announce that Dr. LeManuel Lee Bitsói has joined the Center as Training Director.  As a faculty member, Dr. Bitsóí will also serve as Assistant Scientist in the Department of International Health.  Prior to his current appointment, Dr. Bitsói directed a recruitment and training program for under-represented minority students interested in pursuing genomic sciences at the undergraduate and post-doc levels in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School.  Dr. Bitsóí was instrumental in strengthening minority recruitment efforts throughout Harvard University, and his work was rewarded with the prestigious Community Service Award, Office of Diversity and Community Partnership, Office of the Dean, Harvard Medical School.  

He has also served as a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Science at Georgetown Medical School, and Director of Minority Training in Bioinformatics & Genomics at Harvard University in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology.  In addition, Dr. Bitsóí also served as an Education Strategy Consultant for the Institute for Higher Education Policy in Washington, DC.

Dr. Bitsóí earned a Bachelor of Science degree with honors from the University of New Mexico (1995), where he was initiated into the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society.  He holds a Master of Education degree from Harvard University (1998) where he was initiated into another prestigious honor society—Phi Delta Kappa.  Dr. Bitsóí earned a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania (2007) where his research focused on the conditions that encourage and discourage American Indians from pursuing higher education, a subject upon which he has published.  His dissertation provided him a platform to expand his research portfolio in bioethics and public health issues related to indigenous and other historically underrepresented and underserved communities.

Admirably, Dr. Bitsóí has devoted his career to enhancing opportunities for under-represented minority students to become scientists, science educators and scientifically-informed community members.

The Center's Training and Scholarship Program is dedicated to supporting current and future American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) health professionals in their educational and professional development.  We are committed to addressing health needs in Indian Country, and through our pgorams and partnership with tribes, strive to provide valuable tools necessary to strengthen from the inside out.

The Center has become an international leader in providing unique and specialized public health training opportunities for AI/AN and those interested in improving health in AI/AN communities. In order to help build local capacity to empower native communities, we teach public health and research fundamentals specific to traditional and cultural wisdom. This woven product is a beautiful fabric which we can draw from in order to address health needs.  Our Center’s faculty partner with experts in AI/AN and Indigenous health issues from around the country and the world to provide exemplary educational opportunities at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and in the field.

The Center is honored to offer funding opportunities to AI/AN interested in public health and related professions. Contingent on current funding, we provide support for a range of academic pursuits from individual courses to full degree programs at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

We are constantly working to develop national training programs, increase scholarship resources and provide a supportive environment which directly advances AI/AN training in public health and health issues.

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