Tam Lutz is a Lummi Tribal member with ancestral ties to the Quinault, Nooksack, Skagit, Chinook, Cowlitz, Snoqualmie, Suquamish and Duwamish Tribes. Tam has spent over 25 years working in public health in Indian Country, including over 20 years at the NPAIHB in directing maternal child health programs including chronic disease and motor vehicle injury focused projects, research studies and surveillance. Tam serves as the NW Tribal EpiCenter’s Project Director for WEAVE-NW, funded through the CDC’s Good Health and Wellness in Indian Country (GHWIC) initiative and “Native Boost: Addressing Barriers to Childhood Immunization through Communication and Education,” a CDC funded Tribal public health capacity project.

Tam is an experienced field researcher, a developing epidemiologist, with broad experience in maternal child health at the NPAIHB and at home at her Tribe. She has directed other projects at the NPAIHB including the very successful Native CARS Study, Toddler Obesity and Tooth Decay Prevention Study and the Indian Community Health Profile Project. She has provided leadership in all aspects of program management and has been responsible for communicating with tribes, supervising and mentoring staff, providing broad expertise to the subject areas of the projects, developing collaborations, and communicating and reporting to funders.

Tam, her husband Ed, and their two children and three dogs live in Beaverton, Oregon, where she enjoys cheering from the sideline as she watches her children participate in sports, preparing for and participating in the annual Tribal canoe journeys, and spending time with her large extended family.