NCCIH Research Blog

My colleagues and I at the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) invite you to join us virtually for the upcoming open session of the 86th meeting for the National Advisory Council on Complementary and Integrative Health (NACCIH), to be held on Friday, January 19, 2024.

The open session will be livestreamed from 12:30 to 4 p.m. ET, and the recorded video will be made available several days later on the NIH VideoCast website. Registration is not necessary, and all are welcome to attend online. 

The NACCIH is charged with advising, consulting with, and making recommendations to the director of NCCIH on matters relating to the Center’s research activities and functions. In the closed session, Council members provide secondary review of grant applications and provide feedback on applications needing special consideration. They also discuss NCCIH scientific program priorities as well as program balance. In the open session, NCCIH staff provide updates on the Center’s activities, policies, and research priorities, and one or more speakers from outside NCCIH may be invited to present on topics relevant to the Center.

On January 19, the open session will include the following presentations, which will then be discussed by Council members:

• Helene M. Langevin, M.D., the NCCIH director, will present an update on news, events, and activities at NCCIH since the last Council meeting in September 2023.
• Two nationally known researchers and experts on Native American traditional practices and for the development of culturally relevant disease treatment and prevention programs will present:
  • Karina Walters, Ph.D., M.S.W., is director of the Tribal Health Research Office (THRO) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In her role, Dr. Walters works to advance initiatives to ensure Tribally informed biomedical and behavioral research and enhance NIH’s Tribal consultation and Tribal engagement efforts. Dr. Walters is a social epidemiologist with a background in Tribal-based intervention research in the areas of disease prevention and health promotion.
  • Daniel L. Dickerson, D.O., M.P.H., is a member of the NACCIH. He is an associate research psychiatrist in the Integrated Substance Abuse Programs at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Dickerson’s research focuses on the development of culturally relevant substance use treatment and prevention programs for American Indian/Alaska Native youth and adults, and he is currently principal or co-principal investigator on several NIH-funded studies on this topic. 
• As the director of NCCIH’s Division of Extramural Activities, I will review and provide an update on the Council operating procedures and will also talk about the Council working group process. 

Current Procedure for Public Comment

As always, public comment is welcome. As members of the public can only attend this meeting virtually, public comments will be accepted in writing only. They must be emailed to me by Friday, January 5, 2024, in time to be shared with Council members in advance of the meeting. We welcome comments (up to 750 words) sent to my email address: SchmidMa@mail.nih.gov. 

We hope that you can join us for the open session of the meeting!  

• View the agenda for the January 19 Council meeting.
• Watch the livestream.