NAU psychology graduates help Native Americans with brain health
- NAU Psychological Sciences News
- Sep 28
- 4 min read
From Alexandra Wittenberg Navajo-Hopi Observer
May 20, 2025
Tommi Seaton and Amanda Black just graduated with master’s degrees in psychological sciences from Northern Arizona University (NAU), and plan to continue helping Indigenous elders struggling with cognitive impairment.
Arizona has experienced a 33% increase in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias since 2020, with much of that in northern Arizona, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. Dementia risk is amplified for those living in rural communities, including Native American populations.
“Rates of Alzheimer’s and Dementia have only been increasing here in Arizona, and especially on these tribal reservations, the rates are increasing dramatically,” Seaton said.
For their degrees, Seaton and Black partnered with assistant professor Eric Cerino with NAU’s Healthy Aging Lab, specializing in the Northern Arizona Memory Study data collection. The study aims to support brain health and ultimately help reduce dementia risk in Native American communities through collaboration with community partners. Those that screen for potential mild cognitive impairment are eligible to participate in the memory study. The group tracks participants for two weeks with a smartphone in order to try and understand their daily lives and creates resources based on the data.
Currently, participants are in outlying areas of the reservations, such as Flagstaff and Winslow, but the group is working hard with the Navajo Nation to get Institutional Review Board approval in order to be able to recruit participants within the Navajo reservation. They also plan to work with the Hopi Tribe and the Hualapai Tribe in Peach Springs, Arizona. Beginning next year, they should be able to recruit participants from those tribes.
Right now, the NAU team is building trust and relationships with the Indigenous communities by presenting free, strengths-based brain health workshops.
In April 2024, they worked with Valerie Tsoie’s So’ Tsoh Foundation to share emerging research on dementia challenges and caregiver support for Navajo, Hopi and Zuni caregivers.
This summer, they plan to host a dementia caregiver summit for Hopi caregivers and community members, in partnership with the Hopi Tribe’s Department of Behavioral Health Services and the Office of Aging & Adult Services.
“Everyone’s heard of Alzheimer’s and dementia, the terminology is thrown around all the time. But to truly understand the impact that it can have on people, it’s very profound,” Seaton said.
Seaton grew up in the remote Skeleton Mesa area west of Kayenta and went to Monument Valley High School before moving to Flagstaff. She was raised by her grandparents and deeply rooted in the Navajo culture, with Diné bizaad as her first language.
Although she started out studying criminal justice at NAU, she became immediately interested upon hearing about Cerino’s work in the Healthy Aging Lab after he expressed an interest in diversifying the participants.
“One of my biggest goals coming to university has been to advocate for my people,” Seaton said. “In undergrad I realized Native Americans are the most underrepresented group in academia and just the impact that that has in the understanding of Native persons and how they live their lives.”
In Navajo, there is no word for Alzheimer’s, so for elders who are experiencing memory-loss symptoms, it is a hurdle just to describe the disease.
Seaton knew firsthand that some areas in Arizona are resource deserts and the barriers that went along with rural medical care. It takes time and is costly to travel to visit medical specialists outside the reservation. Even then, there is also a hesitancy to trust specialists outside the community.
“In my own immediate family there definitely is a distrust to go to seek these health and resources,” Seaton said. “(It’s) linked to colonialism and the historical marginalization of these communities, and the inherent distrust of outsiders because of that.”
Black, Navajo and Hopi, was also brought up by her grandparents on the Navajo reservation in Shonto.
Black is focused on the community advocacy work in the study, and mentioned other barriers that makes it hard for individuals on the reservation to seek help outside their community.
Many Navajos, for example, tend to livestock or farms, or are being relied on as caregivers or babysitters to family members. (Caregivers to those with Alzheimer’s, dementia or cognitive impairment face increased risk of becoming cognitively impaired themselves because of the stress involved, she said.)
“So what we’re doing here at the Healthy Aging Lab is visiting these communities and promoting what we’re doing, providing that little bit of a segway,” Black said. “We’re trying to create outlets, trying to connect with other individuals and trying to communicate that we’re only here to help. We are here to provide the context to what’s the next step and how do we network beyond this.”
Black hopes that by bringing dementia resources into the communities with an Indigenous lens, some of the barriers can be minimized.
Her master’s thesis was looking at social determinants of health in Indigenous older adults, and she interned with Native American cancer patients. Ultimately, Goldtooth wants to assist veterans with mental health, and this fall will be attending Arizona State University for a counseling and psychology PhD program.
Seaton is ecstatic to begin her teaching journey at NAU this fall, where she will teach developmental and cultural psychology through a teaching fellowship. Her long-term goal to get a PhD in clinical psychology and continue doing qualitative research in Native American populations.
Comments