Sonia Marrone

University of North Dakota students Sonia Marrone and Elizabeth Luger are the first recipients of the 2009 Alan Allery Graduate and Undergraduate Awards.  The awards honor outstanding American Indian graduate and undergraduate student health researchers.  Selection criteria for the awards include quality, impact and significance of research, types of research experience, and contribution to the research projects under consideration.

Marrone is the 2009 Alan Allery Graduate Award winner.  A clinical psychology doctoral candidate, she is completing her pre-doctoral internship at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC.  She completed her Bachelor of Arts (Honors) degree at the University of Winnipeg in Winnipeg, Manitoba.  Her research interests include health promotion and disease prevention as well as health disparities among American Indians. A native of Winnipeg, she is of Métis descent with ancestors from the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians. Her mentors are Jacque Gray, PhD, assistant professor, Center for Rural Health, UND medical school, and Jennifer Muehlenkamp, PhD, assistant professor of psychology, UND, both of Grand Forks.

Luger is the 2009 Alan Allery Undergraduate Award winner.  A fourth-year undergraduate student, she plans to graduate in 2010 with a double major in Indian studies and psychology, followed by graduate school for clinical psychology.  Luger is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and a graduate of Red River High School in Grand Forks. Her mentor is Van Doze, PhD, associate professor of pharmacology, physiology and therapeutics, Grand Forks.

Elizabeth Luger

UND students Sierra Abe and Jenna Parisien were recognized as Alan Allery Undergraduate Health Researchers of Promise.  Abe is a junior studying psychology with minors in non-profit leadership and political science.

Jenna Parisien receives Alan Allery Undergraduate Health Researchers of Promise award from Jacque Gray, PhD (left)

Of Hidatsa and Arikara descent, she is originally from Hazen, ND.  Parisien, a senior studying pre-medicine, is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa originally from Belcourt, ND. Abe’s mentor is Gray; Parisien’s is Julia Zhao, PhD, assistant professor of chemistry, UND, Grand Forks.

The awards are named in honor of the late Alan Allery, PhD, a fallen member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. Actively involved on the UND campus, he was an adjunct clinical assistant professor at the Center for Rural Health, director of the National Resource Center on Native American Aging, and director of Student Health Services. His experience included 30 years of work with American Indian people.

The awards are presented annually as part of the American Indian Health Research Conference, sponsored by the UND Center for Rural Health, North Dakota IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence, UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences and American Indians Programs Council.  This year’s conference, scheduled for March 27 in Grand Forks, was canceled due to flood complications around the region.