From left: Jacqueline Kelly, Amber Kelly and Lennox Kelly attend Amber Kelly’s graduation from CARE in summer 2024. Jacqueline and Lennox are Amber’s parents. Photo courtesy of Amber Kelly
PHOENIX, Arizona — Lab coats hung on hooks and cabinets gave way to tall ceilings above typical blacktopped science tables. The windows framed Flagstaff’s canopy of trees and mountains in the distance.
The room was cluttered with expensive scientific equipment, pipettes and an abundance of gloves. Instead of food, the freezer contained cell cultures and isolated DNA samples. It smelled clean and had everything needed for a fully functional lab.
Amber Kelly, a lab student worker at Northern Arizona University who is Navajo, was born in Tuba City and raised in Flagstaff.
She’s always been interested in science but many careers in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, and Medicine) require lab or research experience, so when she saw a flier offering a paid internship through the Cultural and Academic Research Experience (CARE) at NAU, she jumped at the chance to get involved.
“I think it’s mainly cancer that made me push to public health because most people don’t even know that Native Americans are more prone to cancerous diseases,” Kelly said.
Kelly studied the health impacts and the legacy of contamination from more than 500 abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo Nation.
“There’s a particular hotspot, like 40 minutes away from Flagstaff, in the small town called Cameron,” Kelly said.
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She has family living near Cameron, one of the places with higher health risks due to radiation exposure and contaminated water, dirt and livestock.
Although CARE worked mainly with Indigenous students hoping to increase the number of Native Americans in STEMM, the program welcomed everyone.
After President Donald Trump issued several executive orders banning diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), CARE has scaled back significantly and is in danger of shutting down.
Trump’s directives, calling DEI programs “illegal” and “immoral,” were hitting the Indigenous health communities hard.
“At least initially, they laid off 800 Indian Health Service employees (nationally), impacting all across the country,” said Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes during the Rural Health Forum held in Phoenix on February 18.
The National Council of Urban Indian Health issued a press release deeming “federal layoffs targeting essential tribal programs … catastrophic for Indian Country.”
“DEI requires context,” said Tempe Chief Diversity Officer Velicia McMillan Humes. “You have to understand that this is addressing a greater, longer, pervasive issue.”
A group of Cultural and Academic Research Experience (CARE) students in 2024. Photo courtesy of Amber Kelly
Diversity training began with affirmative action after President John F. Kennedy signed an executive order in 1961 that required federal contractors to create equal employment for all.
“You have to learn how to create strategies to engage individuals who don’t feel safe or comfortable or don’t feel like they’ll be heard,” Humes said. “But the first thing we need to do is recognize that we have played a role in that inequity.”
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 created the base for much of today’s nondiscriminatory legislation. It made all discrimination on the grounds of race, color or national origin illegal for any program that received federal funding.
“I feel like that term is being criminalized because DEIA (diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility) really includes everyone,” said Dr. Naomi Lee, who is Seneca, and spearheads CARE as the program director. “For my program, while we had a majority of Native students, it wasn’t strictly Native. You know, we had all racial and ethnic backgrounds and needs.”
In the summer of 2024, 61% of the students identified as American Indian or Alaska Native, and 57% identified as first-generation college students.
CARE also provided a virtual option for out-of-state students. After successful completion, seniors are admitted into the Honors College at NAU with fees waived.
According to the program’s proposal, CARE received nearly 70 applications last year, accepting approximately 30%.
CARE spent around $400,000 annually on training, housing, student stipends, staff and supplies for roughly two dozen in-person students. The funding also covered trips to a national conference for eight students annually to present research they completed over the summer.
Amber Kelly, center, stands with research mentors and CARE Co-Director Naomi Lee, right of Kelly, at the 2024 end-of-program celebration. Photo courtesy of Amber Kelly
In 2022, Kelly went to her first conference. “I was feeling so much anxiety. I was so scared because it was my first time presenting in front of judges and new people,” Kelly said.
That year, Kelly won an honorable mention and a computer as a prize for her presentation at the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) fall conference.
The program wove students’ professional identities with their cultural heritage. Tribal elders visited to share stories and traditions. Instructors encouraged them to speak their languages, wear traditional clothing and connect personally. CARE also highlighted Indigenous practices and voices through a book club.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH), which funds almost all medical research in the country, provided roughly one-fifth of CARE’s funding. Lee was looking to renew the two-year contract with NIH, but on January 22 she received an email from the Contracts Management Branch of NIH stating, “All DEIA-focused contract actions are to be terminated effective immediately.”
“The current contract had about $25,000 left on it, and then we were supposed to get another $125,000 in May,” Lee said. “So it’s about $150,000 that was terminated from this executive order.”
This funding loss immediately barred at least 20 students from entering the program.
The NIH spent more than $35 billion in the fiscal year 2023 on almost 50,000 grants nationally, supporting medical schools and research institutions. Of this funding, approximately $26 billion went to cover direct costs for research, such as program staff salaries, travel expenses, materials and consultants.
In early February, the NIH announced a significant reduction of overhead costs to a maximum of 15%, which funds things like facilities and equipment.
A total of 113 students have gone through CARE since its founding in 2019. The 2025 program planned to accept 30 in-person and 20 online students and hoped to expand the latter to 25. COVID-19 created a need for a virtual program and cost an additional $100,000.
“Right now we only have sustainable funding for in-person,” said Dr. Joslynn Lee, CARE co-director who is Navajo, Laguna and Acoma Pueblo. “All of our online and non-summer activities have been canceled at this time.”
Kelly completed her third year in the program in 2024. She is pursuing a public health degree with a minor in applied Indigenous studies at NAU.
Kelly keeps her hair long, hanging past her lower back. Her ribbon skirt, a rainbow of bright florals, was tied at her waist with a sash belt. Her moccasins and traditional jewelry adorned her. She was ready to attend her final CARE celebration.
“My parents always taught me that you should never cut your hair because it is cutting off your wisdom,” said Kelly.
Her wisdom was on display at the end of the program celebration where instructors, mentors, students and their extended families gathered for the occasion.
“One student has 10 people coming,” Joslynn Lee said. “We had kids there and elderly folks came. (Parents) were so thankful that their kids had an opportunity like this. It was just exciting to see them say that. We want them to know that they matter.”
It was crowded and loud and looked like a science fair, with students standing in front of their posters waiting to present their final research from the summer.
“It’s heartbreaking honestly, knowing that future people that I’ve told to sign up for CARE, or the people that already are looking forward to it, won’t have it anymore,” Kelly said.
Naomi Lee said she is looking into alternative financing sources, even if that means serving fewer students, “which is sad, but at least we’re still doing something. If our other non-federal funding agencies don’t allow us to change our plans, we have to cancel the program.”
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Note: This story originally appeared on Cronkite News. It is published via a Creative Commons license. Cronkite News is produced by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.
