Dr. Rachel R. Hardeman is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Health Policy & Management, University of Minnesota, School of Public Health. She is a reproductive health equity researcher whose research uses the frameworks of critical race theory and reproductive justice to inform her equity-centered work at the intersections of health services research and population health. She seeks to improve outcomes for Black birthing people and their babies. Her work also examines the potential mental health impacts for Black birthing people when living in a community that has experienced the killing of an unarmed Black person by police.

Dr. Hardeman’s research has elicited important conversations on the topics of culturally-centered care, police brutality and structural racism as a fundamental cause of health inequities. Her overarching goal is to contribute to a body of knowledge that links structural racism to health in a tangible way, identifies opportunities for intervention, and dismantles the systems, structures, and institutions that allow inequities to persist.