Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Samatha Sabo

Health Sciences Innovator of the Year

When the novel coronavirus came to Flagstaff in March, Samantha Sabo immediately acted to help Coconino County Health and Human Services.
Within a week, she organized two teams of faculty, staff and student volunteers from Northern Arizona University’s Center for Health Equity Research (CHER) and the College of Health and Human Services (CHHS) based on the immediate needs of the County — the disease investigation team and the epidemiology team — with CHER and CHHS colleagues, Nicolette Teufel-Shone and Ricky Camplain.

Sabo is an associate professor in the Department of Health Sciences and CHER, and a faculty member in NAU’s Master of Public Health Program Interdisciplinary PhD programs.

Her quick response and immediate concern for public welfare are second nature for Sabo — they are just two of the many qualities that make her a valuable team member for the Center for Health Equity Research and for Northern Arizona University.

“I am a first-generation college student and even though my parents did not have the opportunity to go to college and get a formal education, they were committed to my education and impressed upon me from very early age that knowledge is power and service to your community is fundamental,” Sabo said.

The NAU Honors and Scholarship Committee recently awarded her the Health Sciences Innovator of the Year for her work. The award recognizes exceptional faculty or staff contributions in “innovation and creative activity at NAU during the previous 12 months and to promote public awareness of innovation excellence in the Department of Health Sciences.” The award is given once each academic year.

“Sam is a true innovator and exhibits the very best qualities as a public health faculty member and professional – she is passionate about her work, generous of her expertise and time, and truly dedicated to addressing social and health injustices in our world. She is such a wonderful colleague and role model for others in the field; we are so fortunate to have her here with us at CHER and NAU!” said Julie Baldwin, Regents’ Professor and director of the Center for Health Equity Research.

Sabo holds a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) in Family and Child Health and a Master of Public Health (MPH) in Maternal and Child Health from the University of Arizona. Her professional doctoral degree in public health is designed to produce transformative academic and practice leaders with expertise in evidence-based public health practice and research.

“Public health is an amazing field and profession,” Sabo said. “As a DrPH as opposed to a PhD, I am especially trained and driven by community engagement scholarship and practice. I have very high expectations for myself and my work — to contribute to solving real life problems in collaboration with those most affected.”

Championing the underrepresented

Sabo has more than 15 years of training, experience and partnerships with organizations serving Latino, immigrant, and indigenous communities with a research focus on the impact of community health worker (CHW) intervention and advocacy on the health equity of marginalized populations.

Sabo co-founded two statewide coalitions — the Arizona CHW Workforce Coalition and the Community Health Representative Movement — to advance and engage CHW stakeholders and Arizona’s 19 Tribal CHW programs in workforce development and policy efforts.

Sabo is a member of the Arizona Department of Health Community Health Worker Leadership Council, a member of the Arizona Community Health Worker Association board of directors and is a founding member of the Arizona Community Health Representative Coalition.

Nationally, she serves in leadership positions with several CHW workforce and policy efforts, including the American Public Health Association – CHW Section and the CHW Common Indicators Initiative.

She has served as a co-investigator with the Centers for Disease Control funded Arizona Prevention Research Center and a co-principal investigator of the National Institutes of Health–Heart, Lung and Blood-funded Global Alliance for Chronic Disease initiative to reduce cardiovascular risk among people with diabetes in Mexico.

She has served as a multiple principal investigator in an implementation science study to improve chronic disease outcomes at the U.S.-Mexico border and principal investigator to a statewide longitudinal evaluation of the longest standing CHW home visiting program — Health Start — in Arizona and co-leads a Border States Collaborative Improvement and Innovation Network (CoIIN) to improve infant mortality in the Arizona border region.

Sabo served as a public health in the United States Peace Corps in Guatemala and served as a Return Peace Corps Fellow to the US-Mexico Border Health Commission while in her graduate program. Sabo was a fellow to the U.S.-Mexico Border Health Commission, was the director for Transborder Initiatives and is a longtime investigator with the Centers for Disease Control-funded Arizona Prevention Research Center.

She currently co-leads the Community Engagement Core for the Southwest Health Equity Research Collaborative.

Recently, she has broadened her research scope to advance smoke-free advocacy and policy efforts with American Indian populations of the Southwest and Northern Plains through a partnership with the Black Hills Center for American Indian Health.

“As a colleague, Sam is always enthusiastic and works to get everyone to recognize their skills and potential contribution to the greater good,” Teufel-Shone said. “In a meeting or when we brainstorm, she inspires you to step up and put forth your best ideas and actions.”