Shawnell Damon

Shawnell Damon is a member of the Navajo Nation and a Doctoral Candidate at the Mel and Enid College of Public Health Maternal and Child Health program, under the mentorship of Dr. Jennifer W. Bea. Ms. Damon's project is titled" A Mixed Methods Approach to Investigating COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake and Vaccine Hesitancy in Caregivers Who Have Children 6 months to 5 Years old." The principle of community-based participatory research guides the study.

The study seeks to understand and examine factors that lead to COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among Navajo Caregivers with children under five. The data would benefit the Navajo Nation, the Navajo Public Health Team, and providers in understanding why children are not vaccinated against COVID-19. The results of this study may be applied to other pediatric recommendations, such as MMR, Hib, IPV, and RSV vaccines, to increase vaccine uptake.