University of Minnesota School of Public Health (SPH) Assistant Professor Kyle X. Hill has been named a 2024 Associate at the U of M Institute on the Environment (IonE). One of 15 associates named to IonE’s 2024 cohort, Hill was recognized as an early-career scholar focused on developing community-engaged, interdisciplinary, environmental research.

An interdisciplinary organization that welcomes collaborators from across the U of M and beyond, IonE focuses on building a future in which people and the environment prosper together. IonE associates come from an array of academic disciplines and other sectors, exemplifying the organization’s cross-pollination approach to solving environmental challenges.

Hill’s areas of expertise include the impacts of climate change on health, Indigenous mental health, community-engaged research, trauma-informed practices, health equity, and Indigenous frameworks of health and wellness. An Ojibwe (Turtle Mountain Band; Enrolled Citizen), Dakota (Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe), and Lakota (Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe), Hill is active in community-based participatory research with American Indian and First Nations communities in the U.S. and Canada. His research considers the social, political, and ecological determinants of Indigenous health, as well as the intersection of climate justice and Land-based healing within Indigenous communities.

“The IonE affiliates program is built on the notion of reciprocity – that the institute supports the work, ambition, and activities of our affiliates and they, in turn, enrich the hundreds of other IonE community members through their participation and engagement,” says IonE Executive Director Jessica Hellmann. “Together, we learn, increase our individual and collective impact, and reach beyond the bounds of our disciplines and the University.”

For a full list of the 2024 IonE Affiliates, go here