We Are Passionate About What We Do
Promising Hope Productions was established to give individuals a chance to share their testimonies to heal and give hope to future generations. We love working with our clients to help create the visions that have been placed in their hearts.
Mariah Abney is a member of the Eastern Band Cherokee tribe, a mother, and an Indigenous scholar. She is a recent graduate of the University of Nebraska-Omaha with a Bachelor of Arts in Multidisciplinary Studies and is a current Master of Public Health student at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in the Department of Health Promotion.
She loves learning through storytelling and believes that everyone has a story to tell, and everyone deserves a seat at the table to share it. When we share our life testimonies, we heal ourselves and the community around us. It is her mission to bring healing in an integrated approach through her calling in research, arts, and media.
Mariah has worked as a cancer research intern at the University of Nebraska Medical Center since 2016. She spent the first two years as a lab-based intern and the subsequent two years as a community-based intern.
She has contributed to multiple peer-reviewed publications about health disparities among American Indians. Working in laboratories at the Buffett Cancer Center through her participation in the National Cancer Institute-funded Youth Enjoy Science (YES) research education program inspired her to explore health research as a career.
Abney works on public health research and outreach specific to cancer prevention, treatment, and research in Indigenous communities practicing community-based participatory research, arts-based research, and Indigenous research methods.
Abney has completed training and certifications in CITI, IRB, Indigenous Research Methods, and CBPR to help improve her understanding of conducting ethical and respectful community health research. Being an Indigenous woman in science has given her an intimate understanding of the importance of having more Indigenous representation in research and academia.
Abney is researching how to address systems that result in health disparities through Indigenous research and increasing representation in the health sciences and research. She hopes to continue building on her research and outreach to benefit Indigenous communities. Abney says, “It has been amazing finding the path to align all my passions into one.”