The University of Arizona’s Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry has named Public Health doctoral candidate and Native Nations Institute Indigenous Data Sovereignty Doctoral Scholar Caleigh Curley (Diné/Hopi) as one of nine recipients of its inaugural CCI Horizons – AI Summer Grant. The grants are intended to support innovative, interdisciplinary projects that explore the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in various disciplines.

Curley says she will use the grant to support her dissertation, titled Medicaid enrollment rates on the Navajo Nation: current trends and key challenges, which aims to increase Medicaid enrollment rates among American Indian and Alaska Native people in Arizona by assessing the strengths and barriers of the Medicaid enrollment process within Indian Health Services (IHS) and Tribal facilities on the Navajo Nation. Notably, this project falls directly in the purview of the U of A’s recently outlined key research priorities as a result of its effort to leverage AI in support of potentially groundbreaking developments in healthcare.

In a statement about the cohort selected to receive this first round of research grants, Confluencenter Director Javier Durán noted that “These projects demonstrate how creativity, critical thinking, and emerging technologies like AI can converge to shape the future.”

Chronic Underfunding and a Lack of Clarity

Curley says she was motivated to pursue her current course of study after learning about the chronic underfunding that Indian Health Services faces each year. “I know that the federal government has a responsibility to provide health services to American Indians and Alaska Native people,” Curley says, “but currently, the federal appropriations allocated to IHS aren’t nearly enough to meet the needs of American Indians and Alaska Natives throughout the nation.”

To help offset these funding shortfalls, the Indian Health Care Improvement Act (initially passed in 1976 and made permanent in 2010) allows IHS to bill third parties such as Medicaid. But, Curley notes, that avenue is currently being underutilized. “There are way more American Indian and Alaska Native people that qualify for Medicaid than are receiving it,” she says.

Curley’s research aims to identify why eligible individuals remain unenrolled. “One of my biggest objectives throughout this project is to get a sense of what types of barriers they face,” she said, adding, “I know generally there's just a lot of miscommunication in terms of people not knowing when their Medicaid ends and when they need to reapply.” 

That miscommunication is further compounded by geography. Curley points out that such issues are likely even more common in places like the Navajo Nation, which spans four U.S. states, than in other places. “There are some differences in Medicaid (enrollment processes) for Colorado, Utah, New Mexico,” she says, meaning that requirements and protocols for Navajo Nation residents can vary substantially from citizen to citizen depending on where they live.

AI in Public Health Research

To assess what is and isn’t working in terms of Medicaid enrollment on the Navajo Nation, Curley will evaluate which of the IHS facilities there have the highest and lowest Medicaid enrollment rates. But, to get that information, she first must secure a formal data-sharing agreement from the Navajo Nation Department of Justice.

Curley says that agreement is currently in its second draft and, once it’s finalized, she plans to conduct four talking circles—two at IHS facilities with the highest Medicaid enrollment rates and two at those with the lowest enrollment rates. This is where AI comes in. Curley says she intends to lean on AI-assisted transcription tool Otter AI as well as the qualitative data analysis tool MAXQDA to help sort and categorize her data for streamlined analysis.

“I know that transcribing by hand is very timely and, of course, is subject human error,” Curley said. “So, just being able to be present fully throughout the talking circles knowing that I don't have to be also trying to take notes and memorize different things… That'll give me peace of mind that I'm not losing any data.”

Curley was clear that she intends to double check the work of the AI systems she employs to make sure her final analysis is free of errors. She also emphasized that “this project is going to be using AI for transcription and analysis only and not for decision making of any sort.”

Once she’s worked through the data, Curley says she will use what she finds to create policy briefs and other resources that can be shared with and between the IHS facilities on the Navajo Nation to “summarize differences (between Medicaid enrollment programs) and provide support at the IHS facilities themselves in terms of getting people enrolled.”

In the meantime, the Horizons grant will ensure that Curley can continue working through the Indigenous data sovereignty requirements of her project while preparing for fieldwork.

Learn more and meet the other eight 2025 CCI Horizons AI Grant Recipients here.