Western Institute of Nursing Honors Nursing Faculty Member for Indigenous Health Research
The Western Institute of Nursing (WIN) selected Assistant Professor Cynthia Taylor Greywolf, University of Hawaii at Manoa School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene (UH Manoa SONDH), as the 2026 recipient of the Ann M. Voda American Indian/Alaska Native/First Nation Conference Award.
The award supports American Indian, Alaska Native, and First Nation nurses, students, and researchers attending WIN’s annual Communicating Nursing Research Conference. Established by Ann M. Voda, professor emeritus at the University of Utah College of Nursing, the award was created to increase Indigenous visibility and representation within nursing research and academia.
A member citizen of the Cherokee Nation, Dr. Greywolf’s program of research focuses on Indigenous health, historical and intergenerational trauma, alcohol use, mental health disparities, and culturally grounded approaches to healing in Native communities. At the conference, she presented a poster titled, “Weaponized Spirits: Alcohol as a Colonial Legacy and Its Impact on Trauma and Relational, Structural, and Epistemic Harms in a Rural Native Hawaiian Community: A Qualitative Study.”
“For me, the award is not only an individual honor,” Dr. Greywolf says. “It affirms the importance of Indigenous-led nursing research and scholarship that is grounded in community, sovereignty, and cultural accountability.”
Dr. Greywolf says the recognition is especially meaningful because Indigenous nurses and nurse scientists remain underrepresented in academic and research spaces. She noted that there are still relatively few American Indian nurses with doctoral degrees in nursing. Nationwide, there are only approximately 25 federally recognized tribal citizens with PhDs in nursing.
At UH Manoa SONDH, Dr. Greywolf plans to continue strengthening Indigenous health research, mentoring students, and building partnerships that support Native Hawaiian and American Indian communities. Her current work includes Native Hawaiian research and a Cherokee Nation-specific study using storytelling methods and a historical trauma framework to inform culturally grounded alcohol prevention and early intervention efforts.
The award includes conference support, waived registration, and recognition through WIN.
Dr. Greywolf appreciates that WIN requires verification of tribal citizenship with a federally recognized tribe during the application process.
“Tribal citizenship is not simply a racial or cultural identity,” she says. “For Cherokee people and other citizens of federally recognized tribes, citizenship is a political and legal relationship with a sovereign Tribal Nation… My Cherokee citizenship is not symbolic. It is part of who I am, where I come from, and how I understand my responsibilities as a nurse scientist and accountability towards my tribe.”