It’s no secret that Tribal Health is growing fast and branching into new directions. But our latest announcement is one of the most exciting: the addition of Dr. Timian Godfrey, our new Director of Clinical Research.
If you aren’t aware of Timian, she’s a superstar in Indigenous health. There’s no other way to put it. For more than 20 years now, she has worked tirelessly to advance health equity for Indigenous communities. Along the way, she’s served as:
- A Board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner providing emergency healthcare for rural and tribal communities throughout the nation
- An Associate Clinical Professor at the University of Arizona (UArizona) College of Nursing
- A mentor and advocate for students from historically marginalized backgrounds
- A consultant on health policy development through the Arizona State Office of Rural Health
In summary, Timian works to improve rural and Indigenous health outcomes by bridging the gap between cultural tradition and modern healthcare policy. Her career is staggeringly multidimensional – so if you’re asking what she will focus on at Tribal Health, it’s a fair question.
According to Timian, she will bridge clinical research and Tribal community priorities with the goal of driving sustainable change. “My dream is a research infrastructure that is Indigenous-led and Indigenous-informed,” she said, “because that is the only effective path to genuine health equity.”
With that said, here are 10 things you’ll want to know about Timian.
- Her Diné (Navajo) mother is from New Mexico and her Okinawan-Hawaiian father is from Oahu, Hawaii. She is from the Red Bottom clan, and born for the Salt clan.
- Timian began her healthcare journey as a certified nursing assistant (CNA) at the tender age of 16! Today, she’s earned a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) from Johns Hopkins, where her studies encompassed a leadership focus with public health training in the Bloomberg School of Public Health, specializing in American Indian Healthcare…
- …. But she’s also a PhD candidate in the Nursing and Health Innovation program at Arizona State University. Her program of research focuses on health equity for underrepresented minority groups, specifically Native American communities.
- She was appointed to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine and selected for a prestigious special committee focused on aligning therapeutic development investments with the unmet needs of populations facing high disease burdens.
- Her nursing approach is guided by the Navajo philosophy of Hózhó—the interconnectedness of health, goodness, beauty, and harmony—as well as the Hawaiian concept of Ha, or the “breath of life.”
- At the UArizona CON, she is the project director for federal grant programs aiming to increase the number of underrepresented nurses in the workforce.
- She also leads an Indian Health Services award (American Indians in Nursing Career Advancement and Transition Scholars) aiming to increase the number of Native American nurses practicing in tribal communities.
- Timian was awarded a $360,000 grant to lead a project integrating kinship into a community-based intervention for Native adults suffering from both Type 2 diabetes and cancer.
- Her accolades keep piling up. Her alma mater, Johns Hopkins University, honored her with the Distinguished Recent Graduate Award; The National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development named her one of their Top 40 Under 40 awardees in 2019; and The American Association of Nurse Practitioners honored her with the Arizona State Award for Excellence in 2021. In 2022, she was inducted as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing. In 2024, she was named a Rising Star by the Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Research Congress – and named a Fellow of the Western Academy of Nursing in the same year!
- Timian is most proud to be a mother to two daughters, ages 11 and 8. She strives to raise them with pride in their Native heritage and bring their strength as Indigenous girls in every environment they enter. Additionally, her husband, Brandon Godfrey, is an emergency medicine and sports medicine physician who worked with Tribal Health for many years.
By now, you can see why we are over the moon to have Timian on Team Tribal. Please join us in welcoming her to our team!