Dr. LaVonne Fox is the Project Director and Youth Outreach Specialist for ND THRIVES and serves as a Research Assistant Professor within the Bureau of Evaluation & Research Service at the University of North Dakota’s Department of Education, Health, and Behavioral Studies. She is a member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Tribal Nation and brings a deeply informed perspective shaped by lived experience, community connection, and decades of professional practice.

With more than 27 years of experience in occupational therapy and mental health, Dr. Fox has worked across clinical, academic, and community-based settings. She previously served as an Associate Professor in UND’s Occupational Therapy Program and has extensive experience in mental health facilities serving diverse populations. Her work is grounded in suicide prevention, particularly among rural, tribal, and frontier youth ages 10–24, with a focus on the North Central region of North Dakota—an area marked by elevated suicide rates and geographic isolation.

Dr. Fox’s scholarship and practice emphasize culturally responsive, strength-based approaches to mental health care, challenging deficit-focused models that often fail to account for historical, generational, and intergenerational trauma. She is widely recognized for her advocacy for sustainable, ethical care practices that honor community context, identity, and resilience.