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    <p class="MsoNormal">The Ballmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral
      Health and
      College of Education invite you to attend the colloquium by
      open-rank tenure
      track faculty candidate, Dr. Alexis Merculief</p>
    <p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
    <p class="MsoNormal">Date & time: <b>Tues. 12/12 @ 10am-11:30am
        (PST)</b></p>
    <p class="MsoNormal">Zoom link: <a href="https://uoregon.zoom.us/j/92309864521?pwd=Zy9TclFEOVh1M1ZOTFYzdm5PV2x2Zz09" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://uoregon.zoom.us/j/92309864521?pwd=Zy9TclFEOVh1M1ZOTFYzdm5PV2x2Zz09</a></p>
    <p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
    <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Colloquium
        Title</b>:
      Nurturing Minds and Spirits: The Role of Cultural Resilience for
      Indigenous
      Child Behavioral and Cognitive Health</p>
    <p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
    <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Colloquium
        Abstract:</b>
      Children from American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) and other
      underserved backgrounds
      are raised in environments rich with supportive community
      relationships and
      cultural connections. At the same time, historical trauma and
      resulting poverty
      have brought systemic barriers to healthy development, including
      risks in the
      built and social environment. These risks present persistent
      stressors that
      negatively impact child behavioral and cognitive health. However,
      individuals,
      families, communities, and cultures bring their own sources of
      resilience. One
      well known individual resilience factor, and predictor of mental,
      physical, and
      socioemotional health, is strong self-regulation. Yet, little is
      known about
      how features of cultural resilience develop alongside and even
      support emerging
      self-regulation and executive function skills in preschool. With a
      focus on
      Indigenous theory, Alexis will unpack reconceptualizations of
      environmental
      risk, resilience, and self-regulation and how these can move the
      field forward
      with the goal of supporting Indigenous child behavioral health.
      Alexis will also
      share novel findings from her current work that demonstrate
      cultural and
      language socialization practices by parents as promoters and
      protectors of
      child cognitive health. </p>
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    <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family:
Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
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mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Candidate
        Bio:</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:
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mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:
EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"> Alexis Merculief is a developmental
      scientist
      interested in how features of the built and social environment
      influence early
      childhood behavioral and cognitive health (specifically, executive
      function);
      as well as how aspects of community and cultural resilience can
      promote
      long-term health and academic achievement for children from
      American Indian,
      Alaska Native, and other underserved populations. Alexis received
      her Ph.D. in
      Human Development and Family Studies from Oregon State University
      in June of
      2023, and is currently a postdoctoral fellow with the Equity in
      Early
      Education (E3) postdoctoral fellowship program at Stanford
      University. Alexis
      is an Aleut (Unangax) tribal member and previously worked to
      promote education,
      health, and cultural connection in American Indian/Alaska Native
      children
      through youth program development at an Urban AI/AN health
      organization in
      Seattle.</span>
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