Marcia O’Leary

Marcia O’Leary, BSN, is the manager and CEO for Missouri Breaks Industries Research Inc. (MBIRI), a small Native owned research group located on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota.  Started in 1995, MBIRI has conducted research throughout North and South Dakota as well as many other western states with the most notable research project the Strong Heart Study (SHS).  As a member of the community, mother, wife and nurse; the need for data to improve health outcomes in some of the poorest counties in the nation is readily apparent.  As the manager and CEO of MBIRI, she has helped to develop more than 100 projects specific to improving health in American Indian communities.  Legislation, reference standards, best practices and funding opportunities depend on validated data and no one is more vested in insuring that data is both correct and authenticated than the more than 50 members of the MBIRI team. 

As the coordinator of the SHS, one of the longest running studies of cardiovascular disease in an American Indian population, she has worked to bridge the gap between scientist and communities to improve capacity development as well as translation of findings to narrow time to implementation of project results whenever possible.  Building capacity and health ownership are key to changing the trajectory of health outcomes but both must be culturally appropriate as well as intentional.  Marcia continues to work with conviction that through relationships, capacity development and data, life will improve for rural American Indian populations.