Rachel Hardeman and Simone Hardeman-Jones are identical twins who share more than DNA. They also share a commitment to addressing racial inequities.

Rachel Hardeman is a professor at the University of Minnesota whose research is used nationally to show how racism affects health. Her work illuminates the disparities between the experiences of Black mothers during pregnancy and childbirth and their white peers. This year, she was named one of TIME’s 2024 most influential people in the world.

Simone Hardeman-Jones has spent most of her career in education policy, including four years at the federal level working in former President Barack Obama’s administration. Now she heads GreenLight Fund Twin Cities, which is changing how philanthropy can better listen to communities to identify unsolved problems and introduce solutions.

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with the two sisters about their work and how they support each other as part of our MPR News Power Pairs series.

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Guests:

• Rachel R. Hardeman is a professor in the Division of Health Policy & Management at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health. She is also the Blue Cross endowed professor of health and racial equity and the founding director of the Center for Antiracism Research for Health Equity. She serves on an advisory committee to the director of the Centers for Disease Control.

• Simone Hardeman-Jones became the founding executive director of GreenLight Fund Twin Cities in 2020. Her previous work focused on education policy. She was a national director of policy and partnerships at the nonprofit Educators for Excellence and served as a deputy assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Education in the Obama administration. Simone also worked as a policy advisor to two U.S. senators, including Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.

  
  

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Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.