I Want Them All To Know That I'm Fighting For Them
An In-Depth Interview with Dr. Mary Owen, Director of the Center of American Indian and Minority Health by Kimberly J. Soenen | June 29, 2022
Recently, I spoke at length with Dr. Mary Owen about her lived experience as a Native American woman, physician and citizen.
Dr. Owen is a member of the Tlingit nation. She graduated from the University of Minnesota Medical School and North Memorial Family Practice Residency Program before returning home to work for her tribal community in Juneau, Alaska. After eleven years of full-scope Family Medicine, she returned to the University of Minnesota Medical School in Duluth in 2014, and became the Director of the Center of American Indian and Minority Health. She is the current President of the Association of American Indian Physicians.
The University of Minnesota Duluth is located on the traditional, ancestral, and contemporary lands of Indigenous people. The University resides on land that was cared for and called home by the Ojibwe people, before them the Dakota and Northern Cheyenne people, and other Native peoples from time immemorial.
Ceded by the Ojibwe in an 1854 treaty, the land holds great historical, spiritual, and personal significance for its original stewards, the Native nations and peoples of the region. University of Minnesota recognizes and continually supports and advocates for the sovereignty of the Native nations in this territory and beyond. The University affirms tribal sovereignty and works to hold the University of Minnesota Duluth accountable to American Indian peoples and nations.
Dr. Owen’s leadership role includes the development and management of programs to increase the numbers of American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) students entering medical careers. She also directs outreach to local and national Native leaders to ensure University of Minnesota Medical School remains responsive with AIAN healthcare and educational needs. Her program stewards an AIAN educational track for all students interested in providing healthcare to AIAN communities.
She also develops research efforts to address AIAN health disparities across the United States model of shareholder-driven private healthcare and continues to provide clinical care at the Center of American Indian Resources in Duluth, Minnesota.
We discussed her perspective on what’s needed now from physicians and medical students working within the United States medical industrial healthcare complex.