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Personal Summary

Damian Chase-Begay, PhD, MS (Mandan/Arikara) is Associate Research Professor of Social Epidemiology in the ÀÏ»¢»ú¹¥ÂÔ (ÀÏ»¢»ú¹¥ÂÔT) School of Public and Community Health Sciences and Director of Community Engagement and Outreach for the Montana Clinical Translational Research Center (NIGMS 1P20GM155895). In July 2024, he received a career development award (NIDA 1K01DA061078) in implementation science from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIH/NIDA) to rigorously adapt an evidence-based substance abuse prevention intervention for urban Indigenous young adults in Montana to incorporate traditional cultural and ceremonial practices. He will test the intervention via a hybrid type 2 implementation-effectiveness clinical trial at five Urban Indian Health Centers. He also has a Health Equity Scholars for Action award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to explore the scope, application, and structure of Indigenous Research Methodologies in Western research settings.

Dr. Chase-Begay currently holds two post-doctoral fellowships. He was one of seven scholars nationally accepted into the 2024 cohort of the Center for Dissemination and Implementation at Stanford (C-DIAS) Fellowship in Addiction D&I Science. His C-DIAS fellowship research focuses on exploring Medicaid funding mechanisms for traditional cultural and ceremonial practices in Indigenous health. He was also accepted into the 2024 cohort for the University of Washington Indigenous HIV/AIDS Research Training (IHART3) fellowship program. His IHART3 fellowship research will explore associations between substance abuse and HIV prevention programming in urban Indigenous communities.

Previously, Dr. Chase-Begay served as the City-County Health Officer for Missoula, Montana. Before transitioning to that role, he worked in the American Indian/Indigenous health field for more than two decades. He is the former executive director of All Nations Health Center, in Missoula, and the National Council of Urban Indian Health (NCUIH), in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Chase-Begay received a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in Sociology and a Ph.D. in Public Health from the ÀÏ»¢»ú¹¥ÂÔ, where his doctoral research focused on the protective role of Indigenous traditional ceremonial practices in an urban, multi-tribal community. He also has a Master of Science (M.S.) degree in Healthcare Administration and Interprofessional Leadership from the University of California, San Francisco.

PERSONAL NOTE: My grandmother, June Chase Nickelson, was extremely proud to have attended the ÀÏ»¢»ú¹¥ÂÔ and I was proud to follow in her footsteps. Unfortunately, she passed before I was able to complete my PhD studies. My grandmother’s sister was able to travel from our reservation to attend graduation in my grandmother’s stead. Following my graduation, she honored me with my grandmother’s family name to carry forward. I made the decision to acknowledge my father’s family by replacing my middle name (Shane) with his maternal family name (McCrackin). And I chose to hyphenate my new last name with my husband’s surname (Begay). This is why my prior work used the name D’Shane Barnett and, beginning in May 2023, I now use the name Damian M. Chase-Begay.

Education

PhD, ÀÏ»¢»ú¹¥ÂÔ

MS, University of California-San Francisco

BA, ÀÏ»¢»ú¹¥ÂÔ

Courses Taught

PUBH 591: ST: Social Epidemiology

NASX 391: ST: American Indian Public Health

Research Interests

• Indigenous Health
• Social Epidemiology
• Substance Abuse
• Chronic Illness

NOTE: As research faculty, I cannot provide academic advising.

Projects

• National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA): 2024-2029 Helping End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) Initiative career development award in implementation science. Culturally adapt and then test an evidence-based substance abuse prevention intervention via a type 2 hybrid implementation-effectiveness clinical trial with urban Indigenous young adults (18-29) in Montana.
• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: 2024-2026 Health Equity Scholar for Action. Conduct a sequential, mixed-methods study exploring the scope, application, and structure of Indigenous Research Methodologies in Western health research settings.

Publications

Refereed Publications

Tsosie RL, Grant AD, Harrington J, Wu K, Chase S, Thomas A, Chase-Begay D, Hill S, Belcourt A, Plenty Sweetgrass R. A Growing Willow: The Six Rs Indigenous Research Framework - Stories of the Native American Faculty Journey in STEM. Rural Sociol. 2024; 89(S1): 620-37. DOI: 10.1111/ruso.12576.

Chase-Begay DM, Adam CE, Williams E, Semmens E. Association between Caregiver-perceived Health Care Provider Cultural Sensitivity and Child Health Status in the National Survey of Children’s Health: 2016–2020. J Health Care Poor Underserved. 2024; 35(3): 951-61.

Chase-Begay DM, Peterson J, Liddell J, Belcourt A. Traditional ceremonial practices as a strategy to reduce problem substance use in American Indian communities: A systematic review. J Integr Complement Med. 2023; 29(6-7): 408-19. . 

Tsosie RL, Grant AD, Harrington J, Wu K, Thomas A, Chase S, Barnett D, Beaumont Hill S, Belcourt A, Brown BD, Plenty Sweetgrass-She Kills R. The Six Rs of Indigenous Research. Tribal coll. 2022; 33(4). .

Other Publications, Works in Progress

Barsky CS, McKeague LK, Emidy MB, Walters M, Beck A, Chase-Begay, DM. Public Health Implications of 911 Calls During Heat and Smoke Events. Natural Hazards Center Public Health Disaster Research Report Series, Report 42. 2024. Natural Hazards Center, University of Colorado Boulder. 

Chase-Begay DM, Cahoon J, Peterson JC, Belcourt A, Noonan CW, Brown BD. Assessing American Indian traditional ceremonial practices and substance use behaviors in an urban, multi-tribal setting: Results from a community survey. Am Indian Alsk Native Ment Health Res. Submitted.

Chase-Begay DM, Applegate B, Caringi JC, Ward TJ. Opportunities for research-practice linkage to address houselessness and community health: Results from a modified search conference. Forthcoming.

Dissertation

Barnett D. American Indian traditional ceremonial practices: Addressing problem substance use in a multi-tribal urban community. Dissertation. ÀÏ»¢»ú¹¥ÂÔ ProQuest Dissertations (Publication No. 2684617732); 2022. . 

Affiliations

American Public Health Association

• Chair-elect, 2024-2025, Integrative, Complimentary, and Traditional Health Practices (ICTHP) Section
• Section Councilor, 2022-2024, ICTHP Section
• Member in Good Standing, 2017-

Montana Public Health Association

• Board Member/Tribal Liaison, 2024-
• Member in Good Standing, 2017-

Confluence Public Health Alliance

• Vice President, 2024-
• Board Member, 2023-

Honors / Awards

• Delta Omega Public Health Honor Society
• Alpha Kappa Delta International Sociological Honor Society
• Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society