Julia Soap

Julia Soap is a member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation in Mayetta, Kansas.  She is also affiliated with the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and the Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas.  Julia graduated from the University of Arizona in 2008 with a B.S. in Molecular and Cellular Biology and minors in Chemistry and American Indian Studies.  As an undergraduate, she conducted research on chromosome instability and DNA damage which can lead to cancer.  She also participated in an internship at Harvard Medical School performing research at Children’s Hospital – Boston where she studied juvenile hemochromatosis, an iron overload disease.

Julia’s desire to pursue public health and medicine stems from personal experience and her involvement among various tribes.  After seeing her father overcome late-stage colon cancer and losing an aunt to breast cancer, she would like to see tribes invest in preventive approaches toward cancer.  Julia is committed to serving tribal and rural communities.  After graduating, she lived on the Texas/Mexico border working with the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe located in Eagle Pass where she became exposed to obstacles such as health care access and indigent care.  She also served as a delegate at the National Rural Youth Assembly where young adults joined to discuss ways to revitalize and sustain rural communities.  She is currently pursuing an MPH and wants to help tribes take a tribal-specific and culturally appropriate approach toward improving their health care systems.