The Power of Community: Lessons Learned from Indigenous Home Visiting in Shaping Research, Program Development and Systems Change
Session Description: Indigenous wisdom, ways of knowing, and community- and culturally-based practices are essential for guiding the design, implementation, and evaluation of home visiting programs that serve American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children and families in the United States. This plenary session will focus on the community and cultural contexts of these Indigenous home visiting programs, and highlight how authentic partnerships between Indigenous communities, home visiting programs, and researchers can support meaningful home visiting research that drives program development and systems change to benefit children, families, and the home visiting workforce. Formatted as an armchair conversation and moderated by Dr. Michelle Sarche (Professor, Buffett Early Childhood Institute at the University of Nebraska), we will hear from Tess Abrahamson-Richards (Director of Data Sovereignty, Hummingbird Indigenous Family Services), Brandi Smallwood (TMIECHV – Chahta Inchukka, Program Manager 2, Chocktaw Nation of Oklahoma), and Lisa Martin (Senior Research Associate, Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health) who are working in and with Indigenous home visiting programs across the country. Key take-aways will be gleaned that are applicable to audience members holding a range of roles in the home visiting field, whether as program staff, researchers, evaluators, or funders.
About the Speakers
Tess Abrahamson-Richards – Tess Abrahamson-Richards, MPH (she/her), is the Director of Data Sovereignty at Hummingbird Indigenous Family Services. The Data Sovereignty team leads research, evaluation, and data advocacy efforts in service of Hummingbird’s direct service perinatal and birth-to-three programs. Abrahamson-Richards is a citizen of the Spokane Tribe and has lived in Seattle on Coast Salish territory for the past 17 years. A lifelong urban Native, she was born in London, England, before spending most of her childhood in Spokane, Washington, on her maternal ancestral homelands. A mother of two, she is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in social welfare at the University of Washington, where her research is focused on Indigenous reproductive justice, policy, holistic family well-being, and access to parental leave. She was honored to be selected as a 2024 Aspen Institute Ascend Fellow, collaborating with a diverse cadre of leaders working to advance the well-being and prosperity of all children and families. Prior to joining Hummingbird, Abrahamson-Richards spent 12 years working in Indigenous evaluation and research roles in university settings and the private sector. In those positions, she served on the leadership team for a multisite evaluation of Tribal early childhood home visiting programs, and led and contributed to a variety of projects focused on Indigenous early childhood, higher education, and public health. Abrahamson-Richards is passionate about evaluation and research that center on participants’ voices, Indigenous methods, community action, stories, and strengths. She is grateful to her community for all of the beautiful, nurturing, creative, resistant and reclaiming spaces we share in and the healing legacies we continue to build across generations.
Michelle Sarche – Dr. Michelle Sarche is a professor in the Centers for American Indian and Alaska Native Health at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Colorado School of Public Health. She is a citizen of the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Ojibwe tribe and completed a Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Loyola University Chicago, where her focus on Native American health began. In the 27 years since, Dr. Sarche has partnered with Native American communities and early childhood programs in research on children’s development in the context of family, community, culture, and programs such as Head Start, Home Visiting, and Child Care. Her current projects include work with the Tribal Early Childhood Research Center, the Center for Indigenous Research Collaborations and Learning in Home Visiting, the Community-Driven Indigenous Research, Cultural Strengths, and Leadership to Advance Equity in Drug Use Outcomes Center, and two randomized controlled trials of a culturally adapted alcohol-exposed pregnancy prevention program. Through the Native Children’s Research Exchange, Dr. Sarche has served as a mentor to numerous early career scholars, and as conference convener for a national network of Indigenous and allied researchers. Dr. Sarche is an Aspen Institute Ascend Fellow, ZERO TO THREE Board member, and the 2018 National Indian Head Start Association Child Advocate of the Year. She also received an honorary doctorate from the Erikson Institute in 2024. Dr. Sarche is grateful for the close collaborations with academic and community partners across the country over many years that have made her work possible. After nearly three decades in her current position, she will soon retire and assume a new faculty position at the University of Nebraska and the Buffett Early Childhood Institute.
Brandi Smallwood – Ms. Brandi Smallwood, a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University Alumni, has devoted the last 19 years to serving Native American children and families within the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma’s reservation. Beginning in 2005, Brandi served as a Home Visitor for CNO Adolescent Family Life working with pregnant and parenting teen mothers and their children. In 2010, Ms. Smallwood transitioned into a new position as Program Manager for Chahta Inchukka, Choctaw Nation’s Tribal Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visitation grant and has continued to serve the program in this capacity for the past 14 years.
Lisa Martin – Lisa Martin, MPH, is a member of the Ojibwe Nation and enrolled in the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. Lisa is a Senior Research Associate at the Center for Indigenous Health at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. For the past 17 years, she has contributed to the field of home visitation in various roles connected to addressing program development and implementation, research practice in underrepresented communities, and identifying systemic inequities and supporting planning to address them. She has extensive experience managing various projects in partnership with Indigenous communities. She received her MPH from the University of Arizona in 2003. Lisa’s current projects include content development of the Family Spirit home visitation curriculum and support of research projects associated with Family Spirit implementation. She is a key lead on the development of the Family Spirit Thrive curriculum for caregivers with children age 3-5, a member of the Family Spirit +Language is Medicine development team, and a Co-PI of the Family Spirit Strengths randomized control trial. Lisa also participates on the Wiba Anung (Early Star) team which engages in Tribal Participatory Research among Tribal communities in Michigan. The current focus is to integrate Indigenous foods and land-based learning into early childhood classrooms and home visitation programs across the nation. In addition, she is a member of the Tribal Early Childhood Research Center (TRC) Steering Committee. Lisa has devoted her professional career to co-creating the implementation of evaluation and research studies in partnership with Indigenous communities.
During the last 
