Wabanaki turtle

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences awarded Wabanaki Public Health & Wellness NPC a cooperative agreement totaling $463,435 on March 13, 2026, to establish and implement the Wabanaki Tribal Undergraduate to Graduate Training and Leadership Experiences (TURTLE) program, an undergraduate research training curriculum designed to develop Wabanaki and American Indian/Alaska Native health researchers focused on Indigenous health disparities. The program will enhance students' technical, operational, and professional skills required to conduct American Indian/Alaska Native health research in a culturally appropriate and ethically responsible manner, supporting students to complete a bachelor's degree in a biomedical field and transition into careers in health research.

The award is made under CFDA 93.859, Biomedical Research and Research Training. Wabanaki Public Health & Wellness, a Native American-owned nonprofit tribal organization headquartered in Bangor, Maine, serves the four federally recognized Wabanaki tribes of Maine. Performance will occur in Bangor, Maine, with the period of performance running through February 29, 2028. The program addresses documented underrepresentation of Wabanaki citizens among health researchers—fewer than five Wabanaki citizens hold postgraduate health-research training degrees focused on Wabanaki health disparities—and aims to build research capacity to address documented health inequities, including diabetes prevalence of 17.0 percent among Wabanaki communities compared to 9.6 percent among Maine residents overall.

Abstract

Wabanaki turtle while wabanaki people have conducted research activities since time immemorial to promote the health and welfare of their communities, wabanaki citizens are underrepresented as health researchers, including at wabanaki public health and wellness (wphw), the applicant organization for the wabanaki tribal undergraduate to graduate training and leadership experiences (turtle) program. Wphw serves the four federally recognized tribes of maine. According to wphw's director of research, there are fewer than five wabanaki citizens with a postgraduate health-research training degree whose work addresses wabanaki health disparities. The underrepresentation of wabanaki citizens amongst health researchers is important to note because wabanaki communities experience health disparities in comparison to the all-races maine population. An increased representation of wabanaki health researchers can address these disparities which include a self- reported diabetes prevalence of 17.0% in comparison to 9.6% for maine residents. According to the national academies of sciences, engineering, and medicine, increasing the proportion of american indian and alaska native (AI/an) health researchers can address such health disparities, underscoring the importance of training future AI/an health researchers. To address wabanaki health disparities we plan to create wabanaki turtle, an undergraduate research training program that seeks to develop a pool of scientists to conduct research on wabanaki and other AI/an health and health disparities. We will develop and implement an effective training program for undergraduate students that seeks to enhance their technical, operational, and professional skills required to conduct AI/an health research in a culturally appropriate, ethically responsible and rigorous manner. The program will support the students to complete a bachelor's degree in a biomedical field, and ultimately to transition into careers in the biomedical research workforce. Our specific aims are to: 1) build wphw's administrative capacity to implement and evaluate wabanaki turtle. 2) develop and implement the wabanaki turtle program's curriculum, a 12-month research training program to enhance research skills of ten indigenous undergraduate students annually, over a 5-year period. 3) develop new and strengthen existing partnerships with academic institutions and organizations for purposes of student recruitment, identification of mentors, and providing trainees with research experiences, career development, cohort building, and networking opportunities.