Brooklyn Park’s New Health Equity Coordinator: ‘I’m Up For The Task.’

Dr. Emma Boyce is the City of Brooklyn Park’s new health equity coordinator. She is a 25-year resident of the city and has spent decades in the healthcare and community advocacy fields.

“It’s a really big job, but I’m up for the task. I’ve done this my entire life,” said Dr. Boyce. “My job is to work in partnership with communities to make sure we are creating opportunities for people, especially we are preferential to people who are disproportionately affected by health disparities.”

Those disparities, she and other city leaders say, are what can keep people from living more normal, healthy lives and that can keep residents from securing stable employment, stable housing, and providing for themselves and the safety and security of their families.

“It’s really important for us to create equitable solutions for all that doesn’t matter whether you live south of 85th (Avenue) or north of 85th–you still have equal opportunities,” said Dr. Boyce. “We know that systems shape opportunities, because power is distributed differently throughout our communities, and so it’s very important that the very systems that are perpetuating these disparities because of the policies they create–they are part of the solution.”

The City of Brooklyn Park’s Health on the Go program is just one way the city tries to address health equity among residents.

The city’s Health on the Go program is just one way Dr. Boyce sees the city can offer short-term solutions to what she and Dr. Marcellus Davis insist are systemic problems that don’t allow for equitable access to healthcare resources in communities as diverse as Brooklyn Park.

“Taking resources into communities where transportation is a problem, we are making sure that people who desperately need these solutions have access to it in a way that is culturally responsive,” said Boyce.

“As we talk about social determinants of health: under/unemployment, the need for proper education, housing all correlate to public safety. Health equity is no different,” said Dr. Davis, the city’s racial equity and inclusion manager. “Proper health services, proper health education is absolutely critical to ensuring that that mantra, that vision is absolutely achieved in the City of Brooklyn Park.”

The city continues work on a health equity action plan, and Boyce said the city is forming a committee to begin work on it later this summer.

Brooklyn Park

Cities Stories