Our first Voices in Hunger episode features Sophie Wallerstedt, Public Affairs Manager at Second Harvest Heartland. Hear from Sophie as she discusses her role in food access advocacy and the work that Second Harvest Heartland does as one of the nation’s largest hunger-relief organizations.

When people think about healthcare, dental care is often treated as something separate from the rest of the healthcare system. Yet oral health plays a critical role in a child's overall well-being, academic success, and long-term health outcomes. For Tessa Trepp-Wetjen, Executive Director of Ready, Set, Smile, improving oral health access starts with recognizing that dental care is not optional.

For 25 years, Kami Burgess has worked as a dental hygienist with a simple goal: helping people stay healthy through prevention and education. Today, as president of the Minnesota Dental Hygienists' Association and a dental hygiene educator, Burgess is focused on something she believes can significantly improve access to care across Minnesota: Collaborative Practice Dental Hygiene.

For many people living with chronic lung disease, receiving a diagnosis is only the first step. Understanding treatment options, finding specialists, managing medications, navigating insurance, and making lifestyle changes can quickly become overwhelming. That's where navigation services can make a meaningful difference.

For Advocates for Better Health, the goal of the Public Health Fellowship is simple: equip emerging leaders with the tools to improve community health at a systems level. For Justice Spriggs, that mission became a career path.

In rural communities across Minnesota, neighbors look out for one another. There’s a deep sense of connection, resilience, and pride; qualities that make these communities not only unique, but essential to the fabric of the country. Yet too often, the people who know these communities best are left out of the conversations that shape their health. That’s exactly what Project REACH is working to change.

For some, commercial tobacco use can feel like a public health issue of the past. Smoking rates have declined dramatically over the last few decades, and in the U.S., prevalence has dipped into the single digits for the first time. But according to Dana Carroll, the Director of the Tobacco Research Programs at the University of Minnesota Masonic Cancer Center, that perception is far from the truth.

Access to dental care is often treated as optional or secondary, but for many Minnesotans, it is anything but. Oral health is foundational to overall health, quality of life, and dignity. And yet, for communities relying on public programs, dental care remains out of reach far too often.

At Advocates for Better Health (ABH), we believe that effective tobacco cessation support must be rooted in trust, cultural responsiveness, and community partnership. That’s why we have been honored to collaborate with NorthPoint Health & Wellness Center, an organization that has long been a cornerstone of care for North Minneapolis and beyond.

We are seeking energetic, thoughtful, and strategically minded leaders who want to contribute their experience and perspective to a collaborative, values-driven board.