
You can call people out,
and you can call them in
Dominique Earland is a student in the University of Minnesota’s Medical Scientist Training Program (MD/PhD).
Originally from just outside Philadelphia, Earland is pursuing a PhD in Epidemiology and Community Health, specializing in infectious disease and health equity research at the School of Public Health, as well as a Doctor of Medicine (MD) through the Medical School.
While at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus in Minneapolis, she’s pursued a passion she’s had since a young age: making sure that the principles of human rights have a home in medicine and research.
Here, in her own words, she talks about her long journey toward making a difference in healthcare.
On her pursuit of a dual-degree program that values the relationship between public health and medicine.
The Medical Scientist Training Program gives you a lot of independence to do research, and in most cases it’s research that can have a clinical outcome. And so a lot of my motivation is to understand how more rigorous academic-based training can be connected with more grassroots, social justice, and community engaged work that really impacts a lot of the communities that have shaped my “why” in medicine and in public health.
Earland partly credits her health education pathway to a program that she began at a young age.
I was really fortunate to be involved in the STEMPrep, a pipeline program that was designed to encourage underrepresented minorities interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math).
I started in middle school to get here, but it worked. So it was every summer doing research and taking science courses outside of regular school, but it really built a community of role models and mentors that made it a little bit easier to dream that I could be here today.
That definitely shaped the way I see higher education, because oftentimes you can feel like the token Black woman, the fill-in-the-blank minority. But that program really showed me that, no, it's not a token. There should be so many more students of color within these programs.
And she credits her mother's often negative experiences with healthcare, which have guided her own aspirations in the field.
My mom has had multiple chronic illnesses and has experienced disability of varying degrees over her lifetime. And she's been treated differently in the medical field ...the number of physicians I've seen her have to go to because she feels-rightfully-that she's not being listened to or they haven't taken the time to truly have a conversation to understand her clinical history or family history.
So some of her health outcomes could have been improved if she was believed more or was listened to. And those small interactions that I've witnessed from my childhood to now, being involved in her day-to-day care, they really shaped the way that I view healthcare, and how I view the delivery of healthcare, and how structurally it just doesn't work for a lot of people.
Coming to the University of Minnesota from the east coast was a bit of a culture shock for Earland.
Minnesota was a difficult transition because it was so different from the culture that I grew up in where people are a little less passive and a little bit more communicative. It's like I was left out on the joke, or left out on a topic that everybody understood. Because there's almost like this agreed understanding that we're not going to talk about certain things that may ruffle people's feathers or make anybody feel uncomfortable. And so oftentimes I did not know that, and it was difficult initially for me to maintain connections.
An example is that when I first moved here, people were saying to me, "Don't go to North Minneapolis. Don't go to North Minneapolis." And I was like, "Well, what does that mean? What's happening in North Minneapolis?" And I would just keep pressing people. And eventually somebody said "It's really violent because there's a lot of Black people."
And I said, "A place can't be violent just because there's Black people." And that was not received well, having a direct conversation and calling somebody out on their bias.

Earland did go to North Minneapolis, and she has developed and taken part in numerous organizations and created opportunities for Black professional and graduate students across the University of Minnesota and in surrounding communities.
I participated a lot in the Ladder, a mentorship program that was started by (then University of Minnesota physician) Renée Crichlow at Broadway Family Medicine in North Minneapolis. (It has since gone national and is called Ladder for America.) We did health-focused outreach and engagement with marginalized community members in North Minneapolis through the local Ladder chapter at the University of Minnesota’s Robert J. Jones Urban Research And Outreach-Engagement Center.
I also helped create the Black Graduate Collective (BGC) and the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in Epidemiology (BIPOC-epi) group at the University of Minnesota.
As head of programming for the BGC, I developed and hosted events for Black professional and graduate students across the University of Minnesota. I am most proud to have established a volunteer partnership with African American Survivor Services (working with Ivan Nelson, a licensed alcohol and drug counselor), which provides harm reduction and support for people in opioid recovery and surviving mental illness in the Twin Cities.
And then in the BIPOC-epi program, I helped to really build community. This is how a lot of people are able to access resources and meet the potential that they have, so it's been really validating to just talk about our experiences in that space and to build more community.
One of the ways in which Earland draws the courage and motivation to continue through a challenging program is from her own family history.
My family descended from people who were in bondage in South Carolina. They were able to be part of the Great Migration and moved to Philadelphia for more opportunities, and really those incremental generational steps gave me the privileges that I have today.
I recently saw my great-great aunt, who's turning 100 in March, and we have wonderful conversations. She's always so proud, so encouraging. She talks about her childhood growing up in Union, South Carolina, during segregation, living in a small town where you couldn't rely on any resources because you weren't seen as somebody deserving of them.
And so I think about all the people before me, within my family or within the greater communities, that enabled us to have the right to vote and to be integrated into public education. I go home every holiday and I meet people who didn't have that opportunity when they were young. And so it's not far, it's not distant, and it still feels so present.
Earland believes that her own experience is a testament to the fact that, with a little support, people can be lifted up, and that building community is a powerful way to create change.
When you're in a community, there's an ability to call people out and call people in. The reality is, racism exists. We can talk about its history, or we could just acknowledge it for what it is in the present. There are extreme health disparities even in places like Minnesota that have some of the best outcomes and resources for education. It still exists.
And this impacts us all. We've all heard the studies about Fortune 500 companies that have more diversity-they have more success, better outcomes. We know that if your healthcare providers are racially concordant, it can decrease maternal and infant mortality. We know that these things matter and make a difference.
So I see overcoming racism as a goal that we all need to work on. Racism is a difficult topic to talk about ... and I don't think there's one right or wrong way to do it. That's why I'm engaging in the ways that feel most comfortable to me, and hopefully I can make a difference.
Starting points for change
Dominique Earland is a recipient of the University of Minnesota’s Scholarly Excellence in Equity and Diversity (SEED) Award.
Learn more about the MD/PhD program, which combines rigorous scientific training with world-class medical education to cultivate the complete physician-scientist.
Explore the University of Minnesota Black Graduate Collective.
Learn about more diverse student organizations and resources of the Graduate School.
Learn about the University of Minnesota Student National Medical Association Mentor Program.
Learn more about the University of Minnesota's Robert J. Jones Urban Research And Outreach-Engagement Center.