The Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE) is an independent nonprofit that serves as the Native American Technical Assistance Provider Team supporting the 7 Native Hub Grantees in the California Reducing Disparities Project run by the California Department of Public Health’s Office of Health Equity. Together with our partners we aim to share insights into mental health programming that honors California’s tremendous diversity, including its first people, Native Californians as well as members of hundreds of other indigenous groups from around the continent and beyond.
Team Members
Elizabeth D. Waiters, Ph.D.
she/her
CMHEP Role: Training and Technical Assistance Specialist
Dr. Waiters serves as Training and Technical Assistance Specialist and Program Evaluator with PIRE’s Native American Technical Assistance Provider team and also worked with Dr. Juliet Lee on a study of marijuana and tobacco in social media. As an expert on research ethics and the protection of research subjects, she has served on PIRE’s Institutional Review Board for the past two decades. She recently was elected to the Board of Directors of PIRE California, a local non-profit evaluation and research organization. Dr. Waiters received her Ph.D. in Radio-TV-Film from the University of Texas at Austin and joined Prevention Research Center as a University of Berkeley School of Public Health Postdoctoral Research Fellow and NIAAA Health Disparities Scholar. As an Associate Research Scientist at PIRE, Program Director with Prevention Institute, Senior Associate with Social Policy Research Associates, and credentialed coach, Dr. Waiters has led and supported a variety of evaluation and technical assistant projects at local, regional, statewide, national, and international levels. She has authored a number of publications and led numerous workshops, webinars, and coaching and strategic planning sessions to provide coalitions, foundations, community-based organizations, and government agencies with strategies to create environmental change around healthy eating, physical activity, health equity, and the prevention of violence, injury, substance abuse, and child abuse and exploitation.
Emily Haozous, Ph.D., RN, FAAN
she/her
CMHEP Role: Training and Technical Assistance Co-Director
I am Chiricahua Fort Sill Apache, a registered nurse, and a Research Scientist at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in Albuquerque, New Mexico. My research is guided by the health and wellness priorities of the Native American partners with whom I collaborate. I have published in peer reviewed journals on cancer pain management and decision-making, telehealth and video conferencing, complementary and alternative therapies for pain management, issues in racial misclassification, and national trends in premature mortality. I always focus my research efforts on the interests of Native Americans and Alaska Natives. I have worked with Indigenous groups throughout New Mexico to address social justice and health equity concerns. I most recently completed a health impact assessment with the urban Native American community in Santa Fe, investigating the health implications of chronic underfunding of the Indian Health Service. I am a frequent speaker at local, tribal, state, regional, and national meetings on Native American health, particularly related to cancer prevention, palliative care, and health promotion. I also have a background in hospice and palliative care nursing. I am passionate about policy change that brings equitable healthcare delivery to all corners of Indian Country. I received my undergraduate degree in music from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and my masters and Ph.D. in nursing from Yale University.
Roland S. Moore, Ph.D.
he/him
CMHEP Role: Training and Technical Assistance Co-Director
Roland S. Moore is Center Director and Senior Research Scientist at the Prevention Research Center in Berkeley, where he has worked since his Ph.D. was awarded by the Department of Anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Moore’s fieldwork sites include a rural Greek community, U.S. factories, restaurants, military bases, Alaska communities and Southwestern American Indian reservations. His research topics include social and occupational contexts and how they influence individual alcohol and tobacco consumption patterns and problems, especially among young people. His most recent research concerns mixed-method evaluations of community level prevention of underage drinking, tobacco and other drug use on and around California Tribal lands. He is the lead technical assistance provider for Native American grantees in the California Office of Health Equity’s California Reducing Disparities Program, Phase II. Methodologically, he uses both ethnographic and survey analysis.