Getting There

Photo credit: Dr. Melanie Nadeau

Dr. Melanie Nadeau, or Dr. Mel, as many people know her, is on a turtle’s walk. While sometimes she wishes her walk would go faster, it is her deliberate and steady pace that has gotten her to where she is today. Dr. Mel sees firsthand how the trauma of colonialism impacts the people and community she loves. But along with others, she is working to grow the number of health scholars who bring an Indigenous worldview to data collection, analysis and application to improve health outcomes for Indigenous people. It is a turtle’s walk, and she is getting there.

In an introductory video, Dr. Mel shares pictures and the names of people in her family, many of whom never got the chance to grow old. Dr. Mel started going to funerals when she was very young. Even as she got older, it was not uncommon for her to pause her education to go home for a funeral. By the time Dr. Mel was in third grade, she knew she wanted a career in health, though she wasn’t sure what. Growing up on the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indian Reservation (Turtle Mountain), she always heard about the need for doctors, nurses and teachers. Her mom encouraged her to get an education, because it was something no one could ever take from her.

Her Path Forward

As a first-generation college student, that is what Dr. Mel did - she got her education. She was always curious, sat in the front of the class and asked the questions no one else would. It was while she was in college that she attended an eight-week program for Indigenous youth. Dr. Mel didn’t feel like she belonged within a cohort where most of the other youth had parents that graduated college. She was ready to leave until the program staff convinced her she belonged and that the program was designed for students like her. This experience made Dr. Mel realize that her actions, voice and how she articulated her journey mattered for those coming behind her. 

Dr. Mel was working on her undergraduate degree at the University of North Dakota (UND), when her mom passed away much too soon from cancer. She left school and went home to Turtle Mountain to grieve. Her mom had not only been one of her biggest cheerleaders, but she modeled the importance of being a life-long learner even though she never graduated with a university degree. She also was a talented artist who made beautiful star quilts and drawings. Dr. Mel says she got her love of learning and artistic talents from her mom, and she got her work ethic and determination from her dad, who was a skilled tradesman. Once she was ready to return to school, her path took what seemed like a detour, but actually was the right path all along.

Dr. Mel couldn’t return to UND to finish her degree until she paid off an outstanding tuition bill, so she got a job and enrolled at Turtle Mountain Community College . While taking classes, she was hired to recruit participants for research studies, and she was good at it. It was while doing this work that Dr. Mel was introduced to public health. As an undergraduate majoring in pre-med, Dr. Mel shadowed doctors and nurses at Indian Health Services . She saw firsthand that they are on the frontlines of public health crises. But once she was introduced to public health research, she believed public health may be her path forward. So she decided to visit with one of her mentors, Dr. Lyle Best, who had served both as a primary care physician and researcher. Dr. Best explained that a key consideration would be as a clinician, you get immediate feedback on the impact you are having on an individual’s health.  Whereas public health is a field where the impact of your work would likely go unnoticed. That didn’t matter to Dr. Mel, but she was still hesitant to change her career trajectory having been set on it for so long. So she applied to medical school, and decided if she didn’t get in, she would pursue a career in public health.  Dr. Mel ended up on the medical school waiting list, and for the first time in a long time, nobody moved off of it. She took that as a sign that public health was her path forward, so she applied to the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota and was admitted.

She Did It

Dr. Mel was the only Indigenous person in the Ph.D. program. As she began, it became clear that Indigenous people were mostly absent from the public health data she and her classmates were analyzing, and the data that did exist was poor quality. She knew if Indigenous people were not represented in the data, public health professionals, who were already so far removed from Indigenous data considerations, would continue to promote a narrative that is absent of Indigenous people.

Dr. Mel convinced one of her advisors that the best kind of research was research that was done with and for the community. The School of Public Health received a grant to create the first cohort of pre- and post-doctoral community-engaged scholars. The first application submission reflected Dr. Mel’s philosophy and the importance of training community-engaged scholars. This program is still going strong today.  Dr. Mel completed both her Master of Public Health in community health education with a concentration in health disparities and her Ph.D. in social/behavioral epidemiology, becoming the fifth Native American to graduate with a Ph.D. in epidemiology. She did it!

Making an Impact

Photo credit: Chase D’animulls

Dr. Mel’s turtle’s walk led her back to UND. Working with Dr. Donald Warne, she co-created and launched the Indigenous Health Ph.D. Program, a first of its kind program that attracts public health working professionals from the U.S, Canada and beyond. The program helps students develop a deep understanding of Indigenous health issues and grounds them in Western and Indigenous methodologies. Dr. Warne used his social capital to bring on key people like Dr. Nicole Redvers to help create curriculum and launch the program. The program is very successful and UND is very supportive of it.

The majority of the students in the doctoral program are Indigenous, and many of them have said they feel supported and that the program is healing. Dr. Mel made graduation stoles and gave them as gifts to the first program graduates last spring. As she watched them walk across the stage to be hooded, she knew she could one day die in peace knowing she is making an impact.

Where She Is Meant to Go

Dr. Mel didn’t think she wanted to be an academic, but she loves teaching and being around her students, who are going to change the world, and she is excited to see the community of Indigenous health scholars grow. Her Ojibwe culture protects her like a turtle’s shell as she overcomes challenges and guides her on her turtle’s walk. Spending time with her grandson makes her hopeful. Dr. Mel knew she wanted to work in public health before she really knew it. She is thankful that her turtle’s walk is taking her where she is meant to go. She is getting there.    

Learn More

Listen to more about Dr. Mel’s education journey

Listen to a recent interview on Minnesota Now with Dr. Mel about the world’s first doctoral program in Indigenous health.