Join us for an insightful conversation with Dr. Melissa Walls, the Director of the Great Lakes hub for the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health. Dr. Walls shares her experiences leading the center through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the innovative approaches and resilient spirit that guided her team. We delve into the long-term changes she envisions for addressing health needs within Indigenous communities, emphasizing the importance of culturally informed care. Dr. Walls also discusses her involvement in a groundbreaking study, Benevolent Childhood Experiences (also known as BCE’s), offering valuable insights into how these positive experiences impact the health and well-being of Indigenous Communities and beyond. 

Melissa Walls (memengwaa) is Eagle Clan and a first generation descendant of the Couchiching First Nation and Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe (maternal) and of Swedish/German descent (paternal). She grew up in northern Minnesota along the Canadian border and now lives in Duluth, MN where she serves as Director of the Center for Indigenous Health’s Great Lakes Hub and an Associate Professor of American Health in the Department of International Health at Johns Hopkins University.

Melissa is trained as a social scientist (PhD sociology, 2007) and is committed to collaborative, community-driven research. She has been working on health equity research projects with Tribal Nations in the Great Lakes region of the US and Canada since 2002. The Great Lakes Hub project focus on topics including mental health epidemiology, culturally-relevant, family-based substance use prevention and mental health promotion programming and evaluation, and promoting better health for families living with type 2 diabetes.