ALANA DIXSON
Ms. Dixson earned her B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Yale University. Her studies focused on American Indian cultural identity, the medical anthropology of cultural change, and women's reproductive and mental health in the context of cultural change. Other educational experience includes pre-medical studies at Harvard University Extension School and Advanced Russian Language and Area Studies at Moscow International University, in Moscow, Russia. This program was conducted in cooperation with the American Council for Teachers of Russian and Bryn Mawr University. Ms. Dixson received a Fulbright Fellowship for her studies in Russia. She has also undertaken Japanese language and culture studies in the Princeton University program Nihongo Studies in Kanazawa, conducted in Kanazawa, Japan.

In her internship with the Institute, Ms. Dixson is based in Denver. Her research focuses on the impacts of genetic research and the Human Genome Project on health care in Indian country. Ms. Dixson is currently organizing a workshop on issues of ownership and regulation of genetic materials in Indian Country.

Ms. Dixson has trained as a facilitator with Synectics, Inc. of Cambridge, Massachusetts. She worked as a Desk Assistant with ABC News-Moscow Bureau, taught Japanese language and International Studies at the high school level, and managed an Internet startup company. She is fluent in Russian and proficient in written and spoken Japanese and French. She will apply to medical school in 2001 and eventually plans to work with American Indian and indigenous health issues as a physician.