Tarlynn is a third-year medical student at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine. Tarlynn was a cohort with the Oregon Health & Science University Wy’est Scholars in 2019, which made her dream of attending medical school a reality. She has a special interest in primary care and hopes to take the knowledge gained back to her community.

“Ever since I was young, becoming a physician was my plan. My experiences throughout undergrad including shadowing, research and coursework solidified my decision to pursue medicine. Further hearing and experiencing some of the health inequities that many of our people face further pushed me and is what I hope to address as a physician alongside mentoring the next generation of healers.”

Tarlynn’s community health project is to mentor other students who are not only interested in a career in medicine but any healthcare profession as all Native healers are needed. She aspires to meet with students in college and high school to provide mentorship and workshops on health related topics such as STI/STD prevention, health screening, and diet/exercise information/activities.

Healers Community Circle project summary:

Tarlynn (Kiowa and Oneida) is a fourth-year medical student at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine. For Tarlynn’s project she had hoped to mentor undergraduate and high school students as well as site-visiting students on local reservations to talk about common health topics. But during her fellowship year her capacity and schedule changed, so Tarlynn pivoted and was able to reach out to a number of students at Minot State University, University of North Dakota, University of Minnesota, Morris and students she met during her 3rd year rotations.

Additionally Tarlynn and fellow HCC student Waylon DeCoteau tabled at the annual UND powwow alongside the Indians into Medicine program where they got to interact with Native youth all the way up to elders who were interested in their hands-on activity, which included a brain model and intubation practice materials.

Tarlynn also assisted in a project conducted by a fellow classmate called “To Welcome Healing”. This was a unique opportunity to help with both a poster and round table discussion at the North Dakota Public Health Conference. Through this project, she was able to work with her colleagues Waylon DeCoteau, Megan Corn and Claire Erickson to chat with those at the conference about their medical journey, issues with training and suggest recommendations for better interactions in a medical setting. In the end, the goal was to share through experience ways to help and recruit healers from our communities and improve shared spaces among staff, coworkers and community members.

Waylon with his fellow presenters at the Dakota Public Health Conference.