Biography
Jennifer S. Nanez, MSW, LMSW is an enrolled tribal member of the Pueblo of Acoma and currently serves as a Lecturer II for the University of New Mexico, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Division of Community Behavioral Health. She received her Master of Social Work degree from New Mexico Highlands University and a Bachelor of Social Work from New Mexico State University. Ms. Nanez has been in the social work, education and behavioral health field for over 25 years, with experience working across University, Tribal, Urban Indian, and Federal systems. Ms. Nanez works to promote effective community engagement and clinical practice, while emphasizing relationship building, connection to traditions, cultural resilience, and Indigenous based knowledge and healing in American Indian Tribes and communities. Ms. Nanez’s interests lie in the intersections of historical trauma, historical oppression and impacts on mental health and substance use; along with cultural safety and health equity needs in the American Indian population.
Research and Scholarship
Brave Heart MY, Chase J, Elkins J, Martin J, Nanez J, Mootz J. Women finding the way: American Indian women leading intervention research in Native communities. American Indian Alaskan Native Mental Health Research Journal. 2016;23(3):24-47.