On this sixth episode of the season, Marnie Werner, Vice President of Research at the Center, speaks with Teri Fritsma, the Lead Healthcare Workforce Analyst at the Office of Rural Health and Primary Care within the MN Department of Health. Healthcare workforce is a big issue these days, especially in Greater Minnesota and especially as ...

EXCERPT: “Although Gov. Tim Walz and DFL legislative leaders agreed to spending targets last week that include $16 million for emergency medical services, many state lawmakers from Greater Minnesota continue to fight for much more to keep the system from collapsing. ‘There’s a crisis before us,’ says Rep. Dave Lislegard, DFL-Aurora, ‘and ambulance services that ...

Highest paying occupations drive the difference between the Twin Cities seven-county metro and the rest of Minnesota. Kelly Asche, Senior Researcher March 2024 As the search for workers intensifies throughout Minnesota, the conversation around wages and the gap between rural areas and the seven-county metro continues to come up. To try and add some nuance ...

March 2024 On this episode, Kelly Asche, Senior Research with the Center for Rural Policy and Development, speaks with Scott McMahon, Executive Director of the Greater Minnesota Partnership about proposed legislation in the Minnesota legislature. The Greater MN Partnership has been advocating for state investment in rural housing and in 2023 they successfully advocated to ...

EXCERPT: “For years, city dwellers have had access to an array of apps, such as Apple Maps and Google Maps, to plan their public transportation trips. These options are more readily available in urban areas because of how public transit in urban areas works: transit agencies run fixed routes, and their schedules change infrequently. Some ...

Marnie Werner Vice President of Research & Operations   My dad once told me his boss had a sign on his door that read: “Are you part of the problem or part of the solution?” When I first started at the Center in 2000, I think rural Minnesota was at a crossroads of sorts. The ...

EXCERPT: “Broadband continues to reach more rural areas. Focus on Rural America founder and former Iowa Lieutenant Governor Patty Judge says billions in taxpayer dollars are being distributed across the country to bring high-speed internet access to the nearly one in five rural Americans still on the wrong side of the digital divide. ‘A really substantial ...

The Center for Rural Policy & Development and the Citizens League are excited to continue our “Interconnected” series highlighting  topics important to both rural and urban audiences. In this webinar, hear a presentation from Vice President of Research, Marnie Werner, providing an overview of the Center for Rural Policy and Development’s newest research – “The ...

Our most recent research highlighted the suicide epidemic in rural Minnesota. On this episode, researchers and authors of the report, Marnie Werner and Tracie Rutherford Self, discuss the various elements of how we got to this point in rural areas, the factors that are playing a role, and ways in which we can move forward ...

  A report in partnership with the Center for Rural Behavioral Health, Minnesota State University, Mankato. As suicide rates race upward, rural residents struggle with a lack of services, information, and answers. Marnie Werner, VP Research, Center for Rural Policy & Development & Tracie Rutherford Self, Ph.D., Minnesota State University Mankato February 2024 Click here ...