Cruz Begay

R. Cruz Begay is an assistant professor in the Health Sciences Department at Northern Arizona University. She is a member of the Tohono O’odham Nation in Arizona and has completed MPH and DrPH degrees in Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley. Before her academic career, she worked for the Indian Health Service and the Navajo Nation in rural communities on the Navajo Reservation and in a community health center in Arizona. Dr. Begay has taught courses in rural health, sociocultural and behavioral aspects of public health, health disparities, health principles, and methods of community health promotion. She is currently involved in qualitative research about environmental changes and diabetes in indigenous populations. Her interests are in research about the mitigating of health disparities in American Indian populations and in the socio-cultural and environmental factors influencing health disparities.