Rate My Professor Jennie R. Joe

Jennie R. Joe, a Diné (Navajo Nation) scholar, is Professor Emerita in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at The University of Arizona. She earned her PhD and MPH from the University of California, Berkeley. As director of the Native American Research and Training Center (NARTC), a position she has held since 1987, Joe conducts health-related studies in cooperation with tribal groups throughout the United States. She also serves as faculty in the American Indian Studies graduate program, contributing to Anthropology through her research on indigenous health disparities. Her academic interests include childhood diabetes, cancer, women’s health, and the role of traditional ecological knowledge in Native American communities. Joe teaches courses such as Living in the Place of the Sacred, Research Methods and Health Research, Health Policies and Indian Health, and Health Policies and Culture: the Navajo Example.

Joe’s career includes significant appointments, such as Interim Executive Co-Director of the Wassaja Carlos Montezuma Center for Native American Health. She has served on the Institute of Medicine’s committee on health disparities and the National Advisory Council for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. A key project under her coordination is a case study for the National Library of Medicine on the Office of Native Medicine in Chinle, Arizona, exploring collaborations between traditional Navajo practitioners and biomedical health providers. Joe has produced numerous publications, including over 20 book chapters, research reports, and articles. Key works encompass the co-edited volume Diabetes as a Disease of Civilization: The Impact of Culture Change on Indigenous Peoples (1994), the edited Health and Social Issues of Native American Women (2012), and “Native American Perspectives on Health and Traditional Ecological Knowledge” (2019, co-authored). Her scholarship has advanced understanding of health challenges and policy needs in Native American contexts, influencing academic and public health domains.