Champagne and Panteah receive Alan Allery Awards

GRAND FORKS, N.D.—Trevor Champagne and Mylan Panteah were recently honored with 2016 Alan Allery Awards . The awards honor outstanding American Indian graduate and undergraduate student health researchers. Selection criteria for the awards include quality, impact, and significance of the research conducted by the nominee. Champagne is a senior premedical student at the University of North Dakota. He is originally from Lawrence, Kansas, and is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. His research focused on reducing costs to give patients more affordable care and a better overall patient experience, as well as fast-acting insulin to help patients with diabetes. He plans to apply to medical school and become a primary care physician in Native American communities. Panteah is a second-year medical student at the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences. He is Navajo and Zuni Pueblo, born in the Navajo Nation. His research focused on characterizing how specific cancers spread throughout the body. He plans to become either a family medicine physician or a general surgeon working for the Navajo Nation. As he works toward this goal, he hopes to encourage follow physicians and other health professionals to work in rural areas in Indian Country. The awards are named in honor of the late Alan J. Allery, PhD, a fallen member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. On the UND campus, he was an adjunct clinical assistant professor at the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences 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 in Grand Forks. The conference is sponsored by the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences Center for Rural Health, North Dakota IDeA (Institutional Development Award) Network of Biomedical Research Excellence, the Seven Generations Center of Excellence in Native Behavioral Health, and the University of North Dakota Chapter of the Society of Indian Psychologists