More About My Research

Heather Sauyaq Jean Gordon, PhD, MS, is a Research Scientist II in the youth development program area at Child Trends. Her research focuses on improving the wellbeing of Indigenous child, youth, and their families through partnering with Indigenous communities, Tribes, and organizations in rigorous research and evaluation that is culturally and community based. Dr. Gordon has a background in working with Indigenous Knowledge around children/youth/family health and wellbeing, sustainability, culture as a protective and preventative factor, and Indigenous self-determination. Additionally, she has experience working with Indigenous populations to develop a model of mutually beneficial research that is grounded in relationship building, trust, and ethical research. Dr. Gordon’s research is participatory, drawing on a variety of methods including community-based participatory research, participatory action research, and Tribally-driven participatory research to truly have a community-engaged approach tailored to the specific community she is working with. She draws on a variety of methodologies including interview, focus groups, ethnography, futures research, scenarios, and talking circles. She strives to produce research products that disseminate to academic and policy realms and are useful for partners. 

Dr. Gordon came to Child Trends from the Administration for Native Americans, a part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Here she conducted project evaluations, published papers and reports, served on Executive Order committees on equity issues, designed data collection and measurement instruments, reviewed grant applications, worked with the Native Youth Initiative grantees, worked on missing and murdered Indigenous Peoples initiatives, and explored how culture is a protective factor in Indigenous communities. She also served as a subject matter expert on working with Indigenous people, and in that capacity advised the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) on their work around missing and murdered Native Americans; the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) on methodologies appropriate to working with Indigenous people and other vulnerable and minority populations; the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee on drafting the Arctic Research Plan (ARP) 2022-2026; and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy on work around Indigenous Knowledge. 

Dr. Gordon’s current work at Child Trends involves working with Dr. Deana Around Him on Advancing Equity for Black and Indigenous Children and Youth to advance the Child Trends impact plan; working on the Understanding Schools Climate for American Indian Youth project; providing evaluation technical assistance to two Alaska grantees through the Tribal PREP grant; and providing support to the ASPE Equity Technical Assistance Center around Indigenous Tribes for HHS. She is also writing grants on advancing informal STEM learning, climate change, and the missing and murdered crisis.