Isabella Meyers (Cherokee Nation) Undergraduate

Isabella Meyers is an undergraduate student at Western Carolina University, dedicated to mental health advocacy and addiction recovery in Native communities. With lived experience in the ICWA system, foster care, and family struggles with addiction and incarceration, she is passionate about humanizing addiction treatment and incorporating multicultural psychology into clinical practice.

For her cohort project, Isabella is creating a bilingual Cherokee-English zine that highlights protective factors against addiction in Native communities. The zine will feature personal stories of resilience, cultural artwork, and Cherokee language revitalization, inspiring others on their healing journey and reinforcing the power of Indigenous knowledge in addiction recovery.

Beyond her academic work, Isabella has an extensive research background, serving as a lab manager at Fort Lewis College’s Social Ethology Lab and a volunteer researcher at Stanford University’s Psychophysiology Lab—even earning her first publication this year!

When she’s not researching or advocating for mental health, Isabella enjoys hiking, creating art, and reading. She hopes to become a clinical psychologist within the IHS system, bringing culturally informed care to Indigenous communities.