New Zealand researcher to speak at public event at Penn State Brandywine

The Penn State Brandywine campus and the local community will have a unique opportunity to hear from New Zealand researcher Lynne Russell, who has conducted studies in various parts of the world. This free event will be held at Penn State Brandywine on Tuesday, Nov. 12, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. in the Main Building, room 113. 

Russell is a Māori academic researcher whose work over the last 25 years has primarily focused on Indigenous mental health and wellbeing. Her Iwi (tribes) are Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Kahungunu, Rangitāne and Ngāti Porou. As a senior research fellow from the Health Services Research Centre at the Victoria University of Wellington, Russell has had the opportunity to present her work and conduct research around the globe.

She will discuss the findings of her postdoctoral study of Indigenous mental health and wellbeing across New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the United States.

Bringing a unique approach to conducting research, Russell will describe how she uses traditional storytelling between researcher and participant to gather knowledge. This method was brought about by Russell learning to retell her own life story after experiencing tragedy.

She is set to expand on these topics in a series of presentations she will give in Pennsylvania and Washington.

Russell has visited the United States twice before in 2010 for the International Network of Indigenous Health Knowledge and Development conference in Poulsbo, Wash., where she presented her work about the importance of listening to and hearing the Indigenous voice.

Later that year she returned as a postdoctoral research fellow to learn from elders, health service providers, workers, scholars, researchers and other experts in indigenous mental health and wellbeing across North America.