Minnesota Health Commissioner Dr. Brooke Cunningham is on a mission to tackle racial health disparities 

Minnesota is known as a healthy state. But we’re also a state with a vast gulf between the health of the majority of white residents and residents of color, especially Black, Latino and Indigenous Minnesotans.

Minnesota Health Commissioner Dr. Brooke Cunningham is on a mission to change that. 

She was appointed to lead the Minnesota Department of Health in January, replacing Jan Malcolm. She is the first Black woman to hold the position.

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with Cunningham about her research into health disparities, leading the state agency after the intense years of the COVID-19 pandemic and her vision for improving the health of all Minnesotans. 

Guests: 

• Dr. Brooke Cunningham was appointed commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Health in January. She was previously assistant commissioner overseeing the new Health Equity Bureau. She earned her medical degree and a doctorate in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania and completed postdoctoral fellowships in general internal medicine and bioethics/health policy at Johns Hopkins University.  

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