For college students in the new Tilikum Summer Health Experience program, the message from Shandee Dixon, M.S., Ph.D., (Apache) is clear: “Once you are part of this program, you become part of the NNACoE community — you have a place at Oregon Health & Science University.”

The Huwighurruk Tribal Health Postbaccalaureate Program seeks to enroll pre-med students passionate about providing health care to American Indian and Alaska Native communities in rural and urban areas.

Huwighurruk is pronounced hee-way-gou-duck. In the Wiyot language, huwighurruk means plants, grass, leaves and medicine.

Dr. Christine Athmann shares why it's important to have Ojibwe doctors and other Native Americans in the medical field.

More Native Americans going to med school through OHSU program

The Northwest Native American Center of Excellence was established a few years ago at OHSU with the goal of training more American Indian and Alaska Native physicians. The director of the center says right now, less than 1% of medical students nationwide are Native American, but the tide is shifting.

Read the interview with Erik Brodt, MD (Ojibwe) and Jared Delaney (Klamath, Modoc, Yaqui & Tohono O'odham) here.

Past and present, near and far, connections surround Lenora Waconda, M.P.H., M.D. Class of 2025.

For Waconda, connections hold value, purpose, meaning. She finds them in her family, in her home city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, around Portland and at the OHSU School of Medicine. These everlasting links to people and places have inspired her educational journey, leading to eye-opening experiences and newly discovered passions. As the second-year medical student looks toward a future that bridges her love for data and public health, she reflects on how the feeling of connection at OHSU has already left an enduring impact.

“I’m Teaching the Future”

Becoming a doctor wasn’t his childhood dream. In fact, Erik Brodt ’02, M.D., decided to go to medical school the week before it started. But the decision proved to be the right one, both for Brodt, who is Ojibwe, and the many Native American voices he lifts up. Now he’s a physician, an associate professor of family medicine, and a passionate advocate for American Indian/Alaska Natives in health professions. In recognition of his work, he’s been elected to the prestigious National Academy of Medicine.