Promising Practices Conference Guest Blogger Intro

My name is Christina M. Pacheco, Esq. and I am a Research Associate and the Project Manager for the Tobacco Use among American Indian/Alaska Native Tribal College Students project at the Center for American Indian Community Health at the University of Kansas Medical Center. I have worked at the Center for American Indian Community Health (CAICH) for the past two years and love that I am able to work in my own community. At CAICH (www.caich.org), we practice community based participatory research, involving community in every aspect of our research.

I received my Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Latin American Studies from the University of Minnesota, Morris, and my Juris Doctor from William Mitchell College of Law, in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

I am currently managing a 5-year observational longitudinal cohort study that examines the changes in smoking behavior (uptake and cessation) of American Indian and Alaska Native tribal college students over a five-year period. As a part of that study, we administer the Tribal College Tobacco and Behavior Survey (TCTaBS) twice a year. The survey looks at what influences tribal college students to start smoking and keep smoking. Equally, TCTaBS looks at what influences some students to never start smoking. The information gathered from this survey will be used to create future programs to help tribal college/university students quit smoking.

I am passionate about achieving parity in health, social justice, and working to end the structural oppression that affects us all.