Rachel Hardeman, MPH ’07, PhD ’14, shows us at every turn that racism has a significant and often deadly impact on health. Her research exposes truths we may never have known, such as Black babies survive at noticeably higher rates when they receive care from Black physicians versus white physicians, and her powerful articles and commentaries push readers to confront their own racial biases.
In June 2020, the School of Public Health named Hardeman its first Blue Cross Endowed Professor of Health and Racial Equity, and in February 2021, she became founding director of the Center for Antiracism Research for Health Equity (CARHE) established with a $5 million gift from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota.
Research and real life are never far apart for Hardeman. “The work that Rachel does is really about the reality of [her own and others’] lived experiences,” says her spouse, Dr. Eduardo Miguel Medina. Hardman was born and raised in Minneapolis, and she is determined to reduce racism’s impact in her state. The police killings of Philando Castille and George Floyd drove Hardeman and her colleagues, including Medina, to write two New England Journal of Medicine commentaries on structural racism’s effect on health and on police violence as a public health issue.
Hardeman investigates the reasons why Black and Indigenous birthing people are two to three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes as their white counterparts, and their infants are three times more likely to die. One way to change those statistics, she discovered through working with the Black-owned Roots Community Birth Center in Minneapolis, is through care that puts the client’s culture at the center, forms strong relationships, incorporates midwives and doulas, and empowers birthing people.
“Structural racism is a fixable problem, and everyone has a role to play in the solutions!”
Rachel Hardeman
Moving to care of that kind around the country will demand education and the healthcare sector’s commitment to fundamental change. “There is a desperate need for a culture shift in medicine to consider antiracism as a core professional competency,” says Hardeman. “Saying, ‘I am not racist’ is not enough, and it has never been enough. You need to be antiracist.”
As a teacher, a mentor, and a researcher, Hardeman’s goal is to ensure that the voices of continually excluded people are heard and valued and that they can live healthy lives free of racism. And that should be everyone’s responsibility. “Structural racism is a fixable problem, and everyone has a role to play in the solutions!” she says. “Always be looking for opportunities to create antiracist change in your communities, in your workplaces, in civics, and in your personal self-learning.”
