MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (09/12/2022) — Tamee Livermont, MPH, has been named a recipient of the 2022 Morris K. Udall and John S. McCain III Native American Graduate Fellowship in Tribal Policy. Livermont is a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation and pursuing her M.D. at the University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth Campus with the Class of 2025 The Native American Graduate Fellowship is awarded to outstanding Native American and Alaska Native graduate students who are pursuing advanced degrees in health care fields and have demonstrated a commitment to Native health care. 

“Receiving this fellowship affirmed that I am on the path that has been set down by my ancestors and that I am in the right place to make meaningful change. The Udall Foundation has supported my journey and helped me realize the role I can have in changing not just individual lives, but entire systems,” Livermont said.

Livermont is from Martin, South Dakota. She has received the prestigious Udall Foundation Undergraduate scholarship twice for her commitment to Native healthcare. Before attending medical school, she earned her MPH in Health Policy and served as the Tribal Liaison at the Great Plains Tribal Leaders Health Board. In that role, she supported tribes in the Dakotas, Iowa and Nebraska during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In her future career, Livermont aims to utilize policy and her clinical degree to defend treaty obligations for the provision of healthcare while engaging in and empowering tribal nations in the self-determination of healthcare. As part of her fellowship work, she aims to engage in policy advocacy, help develop a traditional healing clinic at the Oyate Health Center in Rapid City and network in healthcare advocacy spaces. 

“Representation is important. We don’t have many Native physicians trained in western medicine in my community. My relatives deserve a doctor who will fight and advocate for them. Our youth deserve role models in medicine they can relate to. Our people deserve quality, accessible healthcare that is centered in our traditional ways and relationships, as our ancestors envisioned when including the provision of healthcare in treaties,” Livermont said. “All of these things pushed me to pursue medical school so I can play that role and serve my community in a way that best meets their needs.”

Livermont currently serves on the AMA Medical Student Section’s American Indian Affairs Committee as the representative for the Center of American Indian and Minority Health on campus. She is also a member on the legislative and health equity committees and as the Student Director on the Board of Directors for the Minnesota Academy of Family Physicians. 

The 2022 Native American Graduate Fellowship began on August 1 and runs through July 31 2023.

###

About the University of Minnesota Medical School
The University of Minnesota Medical School is at the forefront of learning and discovery, transforming medical care and educating the next generation of physicians. Our graduates and faculty produce high-impact biomedical research and advance the practice of medicine. We acknowledge that the U of M Medical School, both the Twin Cities campus and Duluth campus, is located on traditional, ancestral and contemporary lands of the Dakota and the Ojibwe, and scores of other Indigenous people, and we affirm our commitment to tribal communities and their sovereignty as we seek to improve and strengthen our relations with tribal nations. For more information about the U of M Medical School, please visit med.umn.edu

For media requests, please contact:
Alex Smith
Media Relations Specialist
a-smith@umn.edu
University of Minnesota Medical School