Damian Chase-Begay, PhD, MS (Mandan/Arikara) is Associate Research Professor of Social Epidemiology in the University of Montana (UMT) School of Public and Community Health Sciences. In July 2024, he received a career development award (NIDA 1K01DA061078) in implementation science from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIH/NIDA) to rigorously adapt an evidence-based substance abuse prevention intervention for urban Indigenous young adults in Montana to incorporate traditional cultural and ceremonial practices. He will test the intervention via a hybrid type 2 implementation-effectiveness clinical trial at five Urban Indian Health Centers. He also has a Health Equity Scholars for Action award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to explore the scope, application, and structure of Indigenous Research Methodologies in Western research settings.
Dr. Chase-Begay currently holds two post-doctoral fellowships. He was one of seven scholars nationally accepted into the 2024 cohort for the Center for Dissemination and Implementation at Stanford (C-DIAS) Fellowship in Addiction D&I Science. His C-DIAS fellowship research focuses on exploring Medicaid funding mechanisms for traditional cultural and ceremonial practices in Indigenous health. He was also accepted into the 2024 cohort for the University of Washington Indigenous HIV/AIDS Research Training (IHART3) fellowship program. His IHART3 fellowship research will explore associations between substance abuse and HIV prevention programming in urban Indigenous communities.
Previously, Dr. Chase-Begay served as the City-County Health Officer for Missoula, Montana. Before transitioning to that role, he worked in the American Indian/Indigenous health field for more than two decades. He is the former executive director of All Nations Health Center, in Missoula, and the National Council of Urban Indian Health (NCUIH), in Washington, D.C.
Dr. Chase-Begay received both a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in Sociology and a Ph.D. in Public Health from the University of Montana, where his doctoral research focused on the protective role of Indigenous traditional ceremonial practices in an urban, multi-tribal community. He also has a Master of Science (M.S.) degree in Healthcare Administration and Interprofessional Leadership from the University of California, San Francisco.
Dr. Chase-Begay is an active member of both the Montana and American Public Health Associations and is currently Chair-Elect for the APHA Integrative, Complementary, and Traditional Health Practices section (ICTHP).