She is a career-long member of the National Association of Social Workers. She was inducted as an NASW Social Work Pioneer in 2020, was named the American Public Health Association’s Public Health Social Worker of the Year in 2020 and received the American Indian Elder Award from the Indigenous and Tribal Social Work Educators Association in 2017. Dr. Weaver is a Professor Emeritus in the School of Social Work, University at Buffalo (State University of New York). She received her BS from Antioch College in social work with a cross-cultural studies focus and her MSW and DSW from Columbia University.

Her teaching, research, and service focus on cultural issues in the helping process with an emphasis on Indigenous populations. Dr. Weaver received funding from the National Cancer Institute to develop and test a culturally grounded wellness curriculum for urban Native American youth, the Healthy Living in Two Worlds program. Dr. Weaver has presented her work regionally, nationally, and internationally including presenting at the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at the United Nations in 2005-2008, 2013-2019, and 2021-2024.

She has numerous publications including the text, Explorations in Cultural Competence: Journeys to the Four Directions (2005), the edited book, Social Issues in Contemporary Native America: Reflections from Turtle Island (2014), Trauma and Resilience in the Lives of Contemporary Native Americans: Reclaiming our Balance, Restoring our Wellbeing (2019), and the edited volume Routledge International Handbook of Indigenous Resilience (2022).