Life Stories
Fellowship Empowers Researcher to Investigate How Science Approaches Trauma
Ana Beard believes stories are a gift. As a graduate student in the DevelopmentalAdversity, Resilience and Transformation (DART) Lab at the University of Montana’s School of Public and Community Health, Beard studies the way trauma and autobiographical memory interact. Her work hopes to inform how researchers can help people share past experiences with care and dignity, without reducing them to data points or risking reopening old wounds.
Housed within an interdisciplinary lab that equips communities and decision makers to address the far-reaching impacts of developmental adversity and made possible through the generosity of private donor support, her research contributes to advancing more compassionate, trauma-informed approaches to health and social systems.
“I’m interested in how we, as researchers, can do this work in a way that is kind, ethical and capable of generating meaningful knowledge,” Beard said. Having the opportunity to do this work is deeply personal for Beard. As a parent living under the federal poverty line, she spent years unsure if college — let alone a graduate degree — was attainable. “I had no idea how to figure out college. I had no idea how to figure out funding it ...,” she said.
Support from multiple scholarships helped make her undergraduate education possible, but graduate school brought a new set of questions. “I Googled, ‘How do you even pay for grad school?’”
After earning a bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience at UM, Beard moved into public health and, in 2026, received critical support from the DART Lab Master of Public Health Fellowship.
The fellowship made her dreams of furthering her education a reality. Beard said the support of donors not only lessened financial barriers but provided what she called “room to breathe,” allowing her to focus on her work in the lab, to ask questions and explore ideas while also remaining fully engaged as a student and parent.
“There’s definitely a certain level of validation and empowerment, particularly with having a fellowship,of having someone really, truly believe in my ability to be here and learn and create meaningful contributions,” Beard said. Perhaps most importantly, Beard said she cherishes the opportunity to be a role model for her children, demonstrating what is possible for them and who they might become.
“Seeing my kids delight in the idea of higher education and understanding they have permission to dream and trust that there are people that help make those dreams a reality … That’s a really big deal.”