{"id":33955,"date":"2025-06-02T08:53:45","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T15:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medicine.wsu.edu\/news\/?p=33955"},"modified":"2025-06-02T08:53:45","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T15:53:45","slug":"rachel-wilbur-nsf-career-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medicine.wsu.edu\/news\/2025\/06\/02\/rachel-wilbur-nsf-career-award\/","title":{"rendered":"IREACH\u2019s Rachel Wilbur Receives Prestigious NSF CAREER Award to Advance Indigenous Health Research"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Institute for Research and Education to Advance Community Health (IREACH) Assistant Professor Rachel Wilbur, PhD, MPH, has been awarded a highly competitive National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER)<\/a> award, one of the NSF\u2019s most prestigious honors for early-career faculty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Totaling $577,000 in funding over five years, the award will support her research project, \u201cSurvivance for Indigenous Well-Being: Research and Education,\u201d which seeks to reframe how Indigenous health is perceived and promoted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a passion project,\u201d Wilbur said. \u201cIt\u2019s incredibly meaningful to see this work recognized and supported by the NSF, especially given how rare it is for Indigenous-centered, strengths-based research to receive this kind of funding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reframing Indigenous Health Through \u201cSurvivance\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At the heart of Wilbur\u2019s project is the concept of \u201csurvivance\u201d\u2014a term coined by Anishinaabe literary scholar Gerald Vizenor that blends survival<\/em> and resistance<\/em>. Unlike the more commonly used term \u201cresilience,\u201d which often implies a reaction to adversity, survivance emphasizes the active presence, cultural continuity, and inherent strengths of Indigenous communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wilbur\u2019s CAREER-funded project on survivance emerged from her previous work on historical trauma and the long-term effects of American Indian boarding schools. Through this work, she recognized that many Indigenous communities demonstrated enduring strengths that weren\u2019t simply responses to trauma but were rooted in deep cultural and familial traditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople kept saying, \u2018We\u2019re tired of being resilient,\u2019\u201d she explained. \u201cThey wanted a term that reflected who they are\u2014not just what they\u2019ve endured.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NSF-funded project will develop a Health Survivance Toolkit, including a formal definition, conceptual framework, and measurement tool. This toolkit will then be piloted in partnership with the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation in Seattle, applying it within their Traditional Medicine program to assess how cultural engagement promotes well-being for urban Indigenous communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building Generational Connections: The INSPIRE Grant<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the CAREER award, Wilbur is also the recipient of Washington State University\u2019s INSPIRE! Community Engaged Research Seed Grant program for the project \u201cConnecting Generations for Indigenous Well-Being.\u201d The initiative, a collaboration with the Coast Salish Youth Coalition and William Hartmann, an associate professor at the University of Washington, focuses on intergenerational knowledge sharing as a means of addressing mental health challenges for American Indian youth and Elders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program pairs Elders and youth from Coast Salish communities to engage in traditional practices such as storytelling, basket weaving, and subsistence activities. The goal is to foster positive cultural identity, self-esteem, and community connection\u2014factors that research suggests can reduce substance misuse and suicidality among Native youth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome of the most powerful moments have come from conversations with youth,\u201d Wilbur said. \u201cThey\u2019re eager to learn, to connect, and to reclaim traditions that have been disrupted by colonization.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wilbur emphasizes that both projects are deeply collaborative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese aren\u2019t just my projects,\u201d she noted. \u201cThey\u2019re the result of strong partnerships and shared visions. I\u2019m just an academic who can help secure the funding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With these two major grants, Wilbur is not only advancing Indigenous health research but also reshaping the frameworks through which such research is conducted\u2014centering Indigenous voices, values, and visions for the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Featured Faculty<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Rachel Wilbur, PhD, MPH<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Assistant Professor<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\tView Profile\t\t\t<\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/article>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The award will support her research project, \u201cSurvivance for Indigenous Well-Being: Research and Education,\u201d a collaboration with the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation in Seattle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25158,"featured_media":33958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[107,57],"wsuwp_university_location":[],"wsuwp_university_org":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicine.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33955"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicine.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicine.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25158"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33955"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33975,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33955\/revisions\/33975"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicine.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33955"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_location?post=33955"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_org","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.wsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_org?post=33955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}