Kya Locklear, a 2023-2024 National Medical Fellowships’ Health Equity Leaders Program scholar, recounts her lifelong journey of connecting with and educating others on her heritage to become a more holistic and culturally competent medical student.  

“I am Lumbee.” Kya Locklear said she remembers proudly stating this facet of her identity to her class in a primary school where she was the only Native American.  

“My physical appearance didn’t fit into a box of what others were comfortable with, and I deeply internalized that lack of knowledge or portrayal of Native Americans in my classes and the remarks about the color of my skin or my seemingly racial ambiguity,” she said.  

Locklear, an enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, said her personal awareness of how ubiquitous and cyclical remnants of historical pain, colonization, and racism could be among Native American populations motivated her to obtain both her Doctor of Medicine and her master’s in public health from Tulane University to further advocate for holistic health equity for Native American youth and their families.  

In her third year of medical school, her Indigenous roots also led her to NMF.  

“It often feels like research counteracting health disparities is not as celebrated or revered as research of the biomedical sciences, so it was gratifying to find NMF and their scholarships that validate social justice as foundational to the future of medicine. I was excited to learn how NMF celebrates diversity while recognizing the merit of health equity research.” 

Though Locklear grew up in Greeneville, Tennessee, her grandparents lived in Hoke County, North Carolina, at the heart of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. 

“The acceptance and love in Hoke County instilled in me a sense of belonging I’d long for whenever I’d leave,” she said. “It was a place where my dad grew up working in the tobacco fields, where my mom started working on a turkey farm at age 12, where spiritual hopefulness and faith in God could overcome any worldly obstacle, and where locals exuded pride and celebration of their cultural heritage.”  

Locklear relied on the social, community, and Tribal resources available to her family after experiencing the incarceration of a parent secondary to drug misuse shortly after her younger sister was born.  

“Supporting my sister during the most unstable moments of my life motivated my mission to be the advocate showing youth they aren’t defined by pain and trauma,” she said. “Knowing how development is intimately connected with experiences, I protected her, never wanting her to know what it felt like to go without.  

“Experiences are intergenerational, so changes in child health need whole family investment to normalize prosperous communication and coping to then be internalized and replicated by curious youth.”  

It became important to Locklear that her decision to become a physician and community health advocate be grounded in support for holistic health of the mind, body, and spirit for marginalized persons.  

While earning her undergraduate degree from Duke University in biology, Locklear raised funds for the National Indian Education Association and increased cultural visibility as a chapter founding member and president of the first historically Native American sorority, Alpha Pi Omega, and served in event and operations roles with Duke’s Native American Student Alliance.  

Locklear was named a 2019 scholar by the Udall Foundation for her commitment to Native American health care.   

“Despite our small numbers and lack of institutional support, I learned the merit of using my platform to create accepting spaces for others. Seeing value in my own experiences and capabilities, I also learned what it means to be autonomous in my education and steadfast in establishing my presence.”  

Locklear also focused much of her undergraduate career on youth education and health, volunteering for the Children’s Health Center and Hospital within Duke’s Health System, working as a research apprentice exploring parental empathy and its impacts on decision-making for infants with life-threatening conditions, and designing and implementing more equitable gifted, SAT prep, and English programs for worldwide use.  

Post-graduation, Locklear served as a student recruitment and yield officer for Duke Undergraduate Admissions centering access, equity, and outreach-focused events and anti-racism initiatives for Native American and Indigenous student populations.  

“I chose to pursue my MPH alongside my medical education because it will invaluably support my understanding of theory and evidence-rooted ways to promote community and familial health,” she said.  

Despite added workload, Locklear continues to commit herself daily to service, including as treasurer for Tulane’s Psychiatry Interest Group, as patient education leader for New Orleans’ homeless shelters, and as a student leader in Tulane’s Indigenous Community Group to improve cohesive support for and cultural celebration of Native American, Alaska Native, and Indigenous students across Tulane’s schools.  

“Although Tulane invests in equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) training in our undergraduate medical education, I’ve noticed the lack of Native American/Indigenous perspectives specifically when discussing the history of New Orleans or discussing cultural values and histories influencing one’s relationship to health care,” Locklear said.  

“Native American history is often erased and excluded from education, specifically in the South. Policy makers actively fight against critical race conversations or disinvest in EDI in medical education and admissions, maintaining the dominance of White narratives. Outside Native American communities, Indigenous identity, values, and historical trauma are poorly recognized and understood.  

“To make change, we all must first be willing to learn about the lived experiences of others and reflect critically on our own experiences with privilege and oppression, what biases we hold, and how we might enact change meaningfully.”

Locklear said this is why she is an Operations Subcommittee Leader and the sole Indigenous member for Tulane’s Racial and Social Justice in Medical Education Committee (RSJME), a student-led arm of the curriculum committee founded in 2020 amid national and social unrest, including the rise of overt racial discrimination and COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on historically marginalized groups.  

“Lack of inclusion trains physicians that poorly care for Native American peoples and overburdens Indigenous peoples in higher education who seek to change this paradigm,” she said. “In this role, I strive towards the decolonization of healthcare education and seek to uplift voices of Native American peoples on campus and in the local community.” 

For example, Locklear and her colleagues received a mini-grant from Tulane’s Office of Medical Education to create an introductory session on Native American health disparities that dissects settler-colonialism’s role in systemic racism: 

“My goals are to inform students of Indigenous peoples’ hardships and resilience, and by recognizing the harsh realities of genocide and erasure settler-colonialism imposed on Native peoples, future physicians can better navigate structures that oppress patients and peers of all minoritized identities, including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, and more.”  

Locklear has also dedicated over 500 hours as a research assistant in Tulane’s School of Social Work for “Weaving Health Families,” a holistically focused violence and substance misuse prevention program for Native American families funded by the National Institute of Health and facilitated by Tribal community health representatives.  

“Indigenous Peoples of the U.S. experience some of the most widely documented social, physical, and mental health disparities and trauma compared to other racial/ethnic groups, with social determinants of health entirely rooted in settler colonialism,” Locklear said. “The process of exogenous domination belittling Indigenous identity and appropriating land, labor, and resources is what resulted in physical and cultural suppression for Indigenous Peoples of the U.S., including genocide, forced relocation and land dispossession, violent and compulsory boarding schools, and federal outlawing of cultural and religious practices.  

“To fully understand health inequity, we must grapple with its historical roots and its inextricable connection to present experiences. Colonialism not only fed historical loss and trauma, but also built systems, policies, and norms that disadvantage people of color.”  

Locklear was a panel presenter at the Council on Social Work Education’s Annual Program Meeting and the Annual Indigenous and Tribal Social Work Educators’ Association in October 2023; this October, she will also present her findings at the annual American Public Health Association conference. 

“In adjunct with my position as a research assistant, my independent project with NMF analyzes development disruptions and resilience among Native American youth during the COVD-19 pandemic,” she added.  

“NMF has given me the structured support to utilize community-led research to advocate for health equity and negated the financial burdens of participating in conferences, panels, and workshops with like-minded scholars and professionals.  

“NMF also created a chance for me to stand out professionally while actualizing my passion and purpose aiding Indigenous families of the Southeast, allowing me to plant roots in this field in ways otherwise unattainable.”  

Upon graduating, Locklear said she intends to apply for residencies in family medicine or pediatrics that best allow her to continue her advocacy work.  

“By connecting with my heritage and educating myself on the historical roots of contemporary issues facing Indigenous peoples, I’m a better aspiring physician aiding the holistic development and prosperity of Native American youth and their families,” Locklear said.