Stories & Voices

Episode 01

Dr. Lukejohn Day

Oglala Lakota Nation · Gastroenterologist · Chief Medical Officer, UCSF Health · Professor of Medicine, UCSF

Dr. Day is a physician, researcher, and health-care leader whose work sits at the intersection of medicine, health systems, and Native health. He previously served five years as Chief Medical Officer of Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center.

He earned his bachelor's degree in chemistry from Yale and his medical degree from Stanford, completed his internal medicine residency and gastroenterology fellowship at UCSF, and in 2024 earned an MBA from the Wharton School. His research focuses on the quality, efficiency, and accessibility of health-care delivery, and on disparities affecting American Indian and Alaska Native communities — including colorectal cancer screening and outcomes. He has served on the governing board of the Association of American Indian Physicians for more than a decade, including as its President.

Episode 02

Dr. Yvette Roubideaux

Rosebud Sioux Tribe · Internal Medicine · Former Director, Indian Health Service · Director, Policy Research Center at the National Congress of American Indians · Professor, Colorado School of Public Health

Dr. Roubideaux's work spans clinical medicine, research, teaching, and public health policy. In 2009 she became Director of the Indian Health Service in the Obama Administration. She later served as Director of the Policy Research Center at the National Congress of American Indians.

She earned her bachelor's degree, her medical degree, and her Master of Public Health all at Harvard, completing her MD in 1989 and her MPH in 1997, with a residency in primary care internal medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and the Commonwealth Fund/Harvard University Fellowship in Minority Health Policy.

Her career began with three years as clinical director and medical officer at the San Carlos Service Unit on the San Carlos Apache Reservation, and a year as a medical officer at Hu Hu Kam Memorial Hospital on the Gila River Indian Reservation, both in Arizona. She went on to teach as assistant professor of family and community medicine at the University of Arizona's College of Medicine and College of Public Health, where she directed two programs recruiting Native students into health and research careers. Her research centers on diabetes prevention in AI/AN communities and on American Indian health policy, and she is a past president of the Association of American Indian Physicians.

Episode 03

Dr. Thomas "Blair" Matheson

Cherokee · Surgeon · Medical Director, National Medical Resources (North Dakota) · President, Association of American Indian Physicians

Dr. Matheson is a physician whose career has been rooted in serving Native American and rural communities. As President of the Association of American Indian Physicians he works to improve Native health and support the next generation of Native physicians. He also serves as the AAIP representative on the American Medical Association's Advisory Committee on American Indian and Alaska Native Affairs.

He is a medical director with National Medical Resources and practices in North Dakota, where his work includes surgery and emergency medicine with a focus on trauma. During the COVID-19 pandemic he volunteered frontline care in Native communities across the West. A Stanford graduate, he is also a professional rodeo cowboy who has competed in team roping and senior breakaway and served as a physician for the National American Indian Rodeo Association.

Episode 04

Dr. Nicole Stern

Mescalero Apache Tribe · Primary Care Physician · Urgent Care Clinical Department Head, Sutter Health Pesetas Urgent Care · Associate Professor of Medical Education, California University of Science and Medicine

Dr. Stern is a physician, educator, researcher, and longtime advocate for the health of American Indian and Alaska Native communities. She earned her medical degree and completed her internal medicine residency at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, completed a fellowship in Primary Care Sports Medicine at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, and earned a Master of Public Health in Health Management from Harvard.

She has cared for patients in primary and urgent care, worked with athletes at the U.S. Olympic Training Center, and volunteered with the Native Vision program through the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health. Her research has examined health disparities and the underrepresentation of AI/AN people in medicine. She has served as President and on the Board of Directors of the Association of American Indian Physicians, and today is Urgent Care Clinical Department Head at Sutter Health's Pesetas Urgent Care.

Episode 05

Oren Morgan

Otomí · Army veteran · Medical student, Stanford University School of Medicine

Oren Morgan is a Latino and Indigenous medical student, Army veteran, and aspiring surgeon from Northern California. On his mother's side his family is Otomí, an Indigenous people of Guanajuato, Mexico. He was raised by a single mother in a family where resilience was the expectation, and carried forward by mentors who invested in him early. Few people from his background were in medicine, and closing that gap is now part of his work.

He served nine years in the U.S. Army, beginning as an infantryman in the 75th Ranger Regiment and later serving in the California Army National Guard as a sniper team leader, squad leader, and platoon sergeant. He started at a community college in Sacramento, transferred to UCLA, and earned a degree in neuroscience studying sleep, memory, and PTSD. He is now a second-year medical student at Stanford pursuing orthopaedic surgery, general surgery, and functional neurosurgery, with research on the biomechanics and surgical treatment of complex knee injuries in children. At Stanford he is president of the Stanford Medical Student Association for Military Affairs, co-chair of SAIMS (the Indigenous medical student group), and mentorship chair for the Latino Medical Student Association.