Decolonizing Academy
From systemic harm to collective healing.
IHEI is cultivating a decolonizing practice among the public health workforce and Indigenous health advocates for health and data justice.
About the Decolonizing Academy
Building Indigenous-led pathways to decolonize public health systems.
The Decolonizing Academy is a transformative curriculum-based training and technical assistance program that reimagines public health through a decolonizing lens. It is designed to build the workforce and infrastructure needed to address the colonial determinants of health.
By strengthening people and systems, the Academy addresses the root causes of health and data inequities and builds capacity grounded in Indigenous values, centering relationality, reciprocity, and healing from the lasting impacts of colonialism.
Before exploring the Decolonizing Academy, we invite you to begin with our foundational learning module on Relational Accountability & Reciprocity.
Overview of the Curriculum & Trainings
The Decolonizing Academy engages public health professionals to understand how colonial systems shape data, methods, and practices.
Participants explore frameworks for decolonizing data, develop relational accountability skills, and learn to apply decolonizing methodologies within their institutions and communities.
Training
Learners Pathway to Apply Decolonizing Practices for Health and Data Justice (Pathway)
Designed for data analysts, managers, epidemiologists, policy advocates, community engagement staff
Stewards for Decolonizing Health Justice
Designed for organizational stewards and system changemakers.
Provides advanced training for leadership and institutional transformation rooted in Indigenous values.
Curriculum Goals:
Activate anti-colonial allyship and accountability.
Address systemic and structural racism, including anti-Indigenous racism.
Integrate decolonizing practices across the public health ecosystem.
Build knowledge, investment, and leadership in decolonizing data and equity.
Identify settler colonialism as a determinant of health inequity.
Core Offerings
Cultivating a public health workforce equipped to address colonial determinants of health through decolonizing values and relational accountability. Learn more about the trainings in the Multnomah County Report and the Summary of Evaluation (posting in progress).
Trainings
Culturally grounded, evidence-based curricula that strengthen institutional accountability in data and health justice.
Curriculum Development
Offering partnership-based consulting to embed Indigenous values, decolonial methodologies, and healing-justice approaches within institutional policy, research, and practice. See our work Building a statement of Commitment for Decolonizing and Workplanning to Integrate Commitment in the Washington County Report.
Technical Assistance & Partnerships
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Public Health Paradigm Shift
Definitions: Decolonizing Data
Settler Colonialism as a Determinant of Health Inequity
Learning Modules
Our approach emphasizes:
Collaboration and innovation guided by Indigenous science and wisdom.
Capacity-building and collective action rooted in relational accountability.
Community-driven transformation through the integration of decolonizing principles in public health practice.
Health Justice via Decolonizing Pathways moves us beyond the conventional DEI model.
Our culturally tailored curriculum supports decision-makers and analysts in decolonizing harmful systems, healing from the enduring impacts of colonization, and advancing institutional transformation.
Participant Reach & Scope
The Decolonizing Academy has supported:
Biostatisticians, epidemiologists, and program directors from county health departments across Multnomah, Clackamas, Clark, and Washington Counties.
Staff and leadership from the Oregon Health Authority.
Regional coalitions and community-based initiatives advancing health equity and data justice.
“I see now that building relationships with people represented in my data sets is a way I can uphold my responsibilities in the work I do for health and health equity.”
— IHEI Participant, 2023