# Research Education Core > **NIH NIH U54** · UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA · 2024 · $170,042 ## Abstract Disparities in educational attainment are more pronounced at each successive level, with 0.4% AIAN enrollment in graduate STEM programs in 2021.2 Consequently, most scientists and health professionals working with tribal communities are not representative of the communities they serve. The Partnership for Native American Cancer Prevention (NACP) Research Education Core (REC) is actively improving this landscape. By cycle 3, we showed evidence of AIAN trainees transitioning to graduate programs. Most recently, cycle 4 trainees who were undergraduates in cycles 1 and 2 advanced to post-doctoral fellowships, faculty positions, and clinician roles. We have also expanded our capacity to train more undergraduates (N=146) in the current cycle and accelerated degree attainment; 73 graduate degrees were completed by AIAN students in this cycle alone. The number of doctoral degrees attained now exceeds that of the prior 3 cycles combined. Thus, NACP has positioned our institutions as national leaders in AIAN education. NAU leads the nation in undergraduate Public Health degrees and UA leads the nation in AIAN conferred doctoral degrees.3-5 These successes are due in large part to the innovative approach to training embedded in indigenous perspectives that we have honed with our AIAN faculty, students, and Community Advisory Board (CAB). We have demonstrated that wrap-around support of students, including a “web” of mentors and activities provides a culturally appropriate and highly effective environment for recruiting and retaining AIAN students.6 Activities focus on enhancing students’ research skills by providing curricular programming and hands-on mentored cancer research, complemented by career development planning and a wide range of role models at both institutions. This mature REC program will expand across the Four Corners Region (AZ, CO, UT, NM) to allow us to share more broadly our training and mentoring approach and increase the network for student placement. We will embrace the two-eyed seeing paradigm as we expand the web of support which will allow us to “see from one eye with the strengths of Indigenous knowledges and ways of knowing, and from the other eye with the strengths of Western knowledges and ways of knowing”.7 Aim 1. Provide two-eyed seeing research education to diversify the workforce and improve the capacity of UACC and NAU to develop AIAN cancer disparities research. Aim 2. Increase AIAN student progression to graduate degrees and cancer-related careers by providing uniquely integrated career development, mentorship, and networking activities. Aim 3. Increase reach of the novel AIAN cancer health disparities research education and career development program by establishing partnerships with AIAN serving colleges/universities and Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the Four Corners Region. ## Key facts - **NIH application ID:** 11011960 - **Project number:** 2U54CA143924-16 - **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA - **Principal Investigator:** Jennifer Wright Bea - **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.) - **Funding institute:** NIH - **Fiscal year:** 2024 - **Award amount:** $170,042 - **Award type:** 2 - **Project period:** 2009-09-01 → 2029-08-31 ## Primary source NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11011960 ## Citation > US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11011960, Research Education Core (2U54CA143924-16). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11011960. Licensed CC0. --- *[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*