Join the School of Public Health Student Senate in conversation with Representative Angie Craig (MN-2) and Dr. Carrie Henning-Smith!
Angie Craig: Congresswoman Angie Craig represents Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District, which contains all or part of six rural and suburban counties south of the Twin Cities. Growing up in a mobile home park, Angie learned what grit and determination look like watching her mom work for nearly a decade to earn her college degree. Angie worked two jobs to put herself through college, with the help of student loans and worked her way up over 20 years in business to lead a workforce of 16,000 at St. Jude Medical in Minnesota. Today, she and her wife are moms to four young men.
Since coming to Washington, Rep. Craig has introduced 35 pieces of legislation, four of which – including the Payment Integrity Information Act and a bill to extend the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) for an additional five weeks – have been signed into law. She’s cosponsored more than 600 bills, over two-thirds of which are bipartisan and hosted 26 town halls in all six counties in the 2nd District. In Febuary, Rep. Craig presided over the passage of the Equality Act, which would provide consistent and explicit anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people across key areas of life, including employment, housing, credit, education, public spaces and services, federally funded programs, and jury service.
Carrie Henning-Smith: Carrie Henning-Smith, PhD, MPH, MSW is an Associate Professor in the Division of Health Policy and Management, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Deputy Director of the University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center, and Director of Graduate Studies for the School of Public Health Health Equity Minor. She is the current chair of the editorial board of the Journal of Rural Health and is an Associate Editor at the Journal of Applied Gerontology. Her work has been widely cited in federal and state policy documents, as well as in national and international media outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, NBC, CBS, and Politico. Dr. Henning-Smith holds a BA in international relations and gender studies from Claremont McKenna College; master’s degrees in public health and social work, along with a certificate in gerontology from the University of Michigan; and a PhD in health services research with a minor in demography from the University of Minnesota.
