Jen McCormack is a research development associate specializing in health sciences and health disparities proposals. Prior to her appointment in RDS, Jen served as the Sr. Director of Development and Research for a nonprofit in the GuVo District of the Tohono O’odham Nation. Combining western academic and Indigenous research paradigms, Jen secured and managed federal, state, foundation, and private grants, and worked with multiple federal and state agencies. Through her career, she has consulted in research development and governance.
As a professor of geography and American Indian Studies, Jen taught with an emphasis for first generation university students and Native American/Tribal colleges. She gained field-based experience in Indigenous health, governance, education, and public policy with the Native Nations Institute at the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy and the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development. Jen received her MA in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and her PhD in Geography and American Indian Studies from the University of Arizona. Her dissertation research was supported by the National Science Foundation and collaborative research with the Gwich’in Nation in the Arctic borderlands.