Valarie Blue Bird Jernigan, a citizen of the Choctaw Nation, is a community based participatory researcher, trained in intervention science, with the goal of combining research and action for social change. Dr. Jernigan is an Associate Professor of Health Promotion Sciences at the College of Public Health, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, and Assistant Dean of Research for the University of Oklahoma School of Community Medicine. She received her doctorate in public health from the University of California, Berkeley, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Stanford Prevention Research Center.

Dr. Jernigan is currently the Principal Investigator for the NHLBI-funded R01 study “THRIVE,” Tribal Health and Resilience in Vulnerable Environments, which implemented healthy makeovers in tribally owned convenience stores in the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations of Oklahoma. She is also the Principal Investigator for the NIMHD-funded R01 study “FRESH,” a farm-to-school multicomponent intervention based on the principles of food sovereignty and being led in partnership with the Osage Nation in Oklahoma.