Nancy Marie Lucero

Research Associate Professor, Senior Research Associate, Butler Institute for Families; Director of Tribal Initiatives

Craig Hall, 2148 South High St. Denver, CO 80208

What I do

Today, healthy and culturally connected American Indian children represent a victory in Native peoples' long struggle to resist assimilation and cultural loss. Indian child welfare practice in urban and tribal communities ensures the well-being of children, families and tribes, and it is a powerful tool that supports cultural preservation and tribal sovereignty. I'm honored that, through social work research and practice, I've been able to join with so many others in collective efforts to strengthen and preserve Native cultures, communities and families.

Specialization(s)

tribal child welfare, qualitative research design and methods, clinical social work, culturally responsive practice, evidence-based practice/implementation science, indigenous and native peoples, mental and behavioral health, trauma

Professional Biography

Research Associate Professor Nancy M. Lucero (Choctaw) also serves as Principal Investigator and co-Director for the Capacity Building Center for Tribes, a Children's Bureau project administered by the Butler Institute for Families. She has also served as the Director of Evaluation for the Center for Tribes. Lucero has experience with designing, implementing, and evaluating organizational change models in tribal and urban Indian child welfare services. She also acts as a lead for a tribal workforce excellence project through the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute (NCWWI).

Lucero's most recent scholarship focuses on assessing trauma experiences of Native caregivers with children involved in ICWA cases and on articulating how Native child welfare workers incorporate cultural practices and cultural preservation efforts into child welfare services. She is also author of a chapter on Native peoples in child welfare in the recently published volume, Introduction to Child Welfare: Building a Culturally Responsive, Multisystemic, Evidence-Based Approach.

Degree(s)

Ph.D., Social Work, University of Denver, 2009
MSW, Social Work, University of Denver, 2000
BS, Social Welfare, Metropolitan State College of Denver, 1995

Licensure / Accreditations

Medicaid behavioral health provider certification
Board Certified TeleMental Health Provider
Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW)

Professional Affiliations

Society for Social Work Research (SSWR)
Other

Media Sources

Time Magazine

Key Projects

National Child Welfare Capacity Building Center for Tribes
Indian Child Welfare Support
Choctaw Family Violence Program Implementation Support & Evaluation Planning
Denver Indian Family Resource Center ACYF Project
An Intergenerational Examination of the Effects of Urbanization on American Indian Cultural Identity and Cultural Connections

Featured Publications

Nutton, J., Lucero, N., & Ives, N. (2020). Relationality as a response to challenges of participatory action research in indigenous contexts: Reflections from the field. Educational Action Research, 28(1), 100-111. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/09650792.2019.1699132

Lucero, N. M. (2020). Native children and families in child welfare. In M. D. Hanna, R. Fong, N. Rolock, & R. McRoy (Eds.), Introduction to child welfare: A culturally responsive, multisystemic, evidence-based approach (pp. 172-196). San Diego, CA: Cognella Academic.

Lucero, N. M., & Leake, R. (2016). Expressions of culture in American Indian/Alaska Native tribal child welfare work: A qualitative meta-synthesis. . Journal of Public Child Welfare/Taylor and Francis, 10(3), 327-347. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/15548732.2016.1140107

Lucero, N. M., Bussey, M. C., & Carver-Roberts, T. (2021). Assessing trauma in American Indian/Alaska Native parents as an ICWA active effort. Child Welfare, 98(5), 1-26.

Lucero, N. M., & Leake, R. (2018). Dual marginalization of urban-based American Indian and Alaska Native children and families. In C. James-Brown, J. Collins, D. Shilling Wolfe, J. L. Jackson, & A. Garcia (Eds.), Child maltreatment in insular and isolated communities (pp. 63-69). Washington, DC: Child Welfare League of America. Retrieved from https://www.cwla.org/table-of-contents-child-maltreatment-in-insular-and-isolated-communities/

Presentations

Lucero, N. M., DeSantis, J., DeWolfe, J., Leicht, C., & Barbee, A. (2019). An Evaluator's Balancing Act: Juggling the Conflicting Roles of Developmental Evaluation and Independent Evaluation. 2019 National Child Welfare Evaluation Summit. Washington, DC: U.S. Children's Bureau.

Lucero, N. M., Fong, R., Detlaff, A., LaFrance, J., & Andrews, K. (2019). Reflections on Evidence-Building in Child Welfare: Examining Power and Culture in Dominant Paradigms for Building Evidence. 2019 National Child Welfare Evaluation Summit. Washington, DC: U.S. Children's Bureau.

Lucero, N. M., & Eisen, K. (2018). "It Hurt to Hear the Story": Preparing for Secondary Traumatic Stress Reactions in Researchers Immersed in Indigenous Settings. Qualitative Methods 2018. Banff, AB Canada: International Institute for Qualitative Methodology.

Lucero, N. M. (2018). Aligning ICWA practice with Native child well-being. Utah 2018 Indian Child Welfare Conference. Midway, UT: Utah Court Improvement Project.

Lucero, N. M. (2018). Exploring Qualitative Interviewing and Analysis Techniques to Yield Deep and Nuanced Findings: Lessons from the Expressions of Culture in Tribal Child Welfare Work Project. Center for Research on Children and Families Research Seminar Series. Montreal, QC Canada: McGill University School of Social Work.