Linda Burhansstipanov

Linda Burhansstipanov, DrPH, MSPH (Cherokee Nation) is the founder and president of the Native American Cancer Research Corporation (NACR), the only organization in the United States exclusively dedicated to cancer research, education, and patient support for Native American communities. A member of the Cherokee Nation, she has devoted over four decades to documenting and reducing the profound cancer disparities experienced by American Indian and Alaska Native populations—groups who experience significantly higher rates of certain cancers (including colorectal, cervical, liver, and kidney cancers) and dramatically lower survival rates compared to the general US population, driven by geographic isolation, historical trauma, mistrust of mainstream medicine, and underfunded Indian Health Service facilities. Dr. Burhansstipanov pioneered the concept of culturally adapted cancer patient navigation, developing and evaluating the Native Sisters program, a peer navigator model in which trained Native women support tribal community members through cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment—a model that has been replicated in dozens of tribal nations and adapted internationally for other Indigenous populations. Her community-based participatory research approach insists on full tribal community partnership in research design, data ownership, and program implementation, establishing a model of respectful, decolonized cancer research that is now considered the gold standard for working with Indigenous communities globally. She has testified before the US Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and served on NCI and CDC advisory bodies, and her work directly influenced the Indian Health Care Improvement Act reauthorization. Internationally, her model has informed cancer programs for Maori communities in New Zealand, Aboriginal Australians, and Indigenous populations in Latin America and Canada.