Women Leading the Way: Research, Care, and Impact at HHRI
Healing Future Generations: One woman's journey in helping expectant families and parents of young children
Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute (HHRI) Senior Researcher Gretchen Buchanan, PhD, LMFT, LADC, at the Redleaf Center for Family Healing and Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota, was invited by Cinema Club Moderator Megan Feeney as a subject-expert to speak at the “Nightbitch” film screening to open a dialogue about the difficulties of motherhood not often discussed, including postpartum mental health, the isolation of motherhood in America, female empowerment, loss of identity, and shifting parenting styles.
The Redleaf Center for Family Healing is nestled within Hennepin Healthcare, focusing on multi-generational mental health and parenting support for individuals during pregnancy and parenting of children aged 0-5 years. Their services include: Mother-Baby Connections Group, Mother-Baby Day Hospital, Perinatal Outpatient Program (POP), the Redleaf Outpatient Clinic, and infant and early childhood mental health services.
To Antarctica & beyond; Infectious Diseases researcher Kristina Burrack, PhD, completes Homeward Bound trip
Stop. Waddle time. HHRI Principal Investigator Kristina Burrack, PhD, along with 122 participants of the year-long women in STEMM leadership program, Homeward Bound, “could not pass go or collect $200.” They trekked across the lands of the Antarctic Peninsula, pausing along the way to wait for any penguin crossings.
Biosecurity measures are vital to prevent the spread of the avian flu. The voyagers could not sit, stand, put anything on the ground, or squat for fear of falling over. They also had to keep a safe distance from the penguins, while wearing special heavy-duty rubber boots as biosecurity measures to prevent the spread of the highly pathogenic avian influenza, also known as the avian flu or bird flu.
“Avian influenza has also made its way down to Antarctica, unfortunately, and has killed 1000s of penguins. And because seals and other animals often eat penguins, they have been getting infected as well,” said Dr. Burrack.
SRTR biostatisticians are using data to help transplant communities
Dr. Lyden, Dr. Masotti, and Ahn are biostatisticians working with the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR) to solve complex and life-impacting problems.
Dr. Lyden breaks it down: “Our group helps to design and evaluate organ allocation policy in the United States, which is pretty amazing. We also publish transplant program evaluations, create online tools for patient-decision making in transplant, and write research papers.”
CDRG currently holds the federal SRTR contract, which supports the transplant community. Whoever holds the SRTR contract is responsible for gathering and providing statistical and analytic support to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN). The OPTN is a national public-private partnership linking all professionals in the U.S. donation and transplantation system. Its overarching goal is to improve the U.S. organ transplantation system to increase efficiency, optimization, and opportunities.
Women Who Lead: Meet the Leaders of HHRI
International Women’s Day (IWD), celebrated annually on March 8, started over 100 years ago in 1911, focusing on women’s equality, achievements, the gender pay gap, and raising awareness about discrimination.
Later, one celebratory day turned into one week when the U.S. President proclaimed the week beginning March 7, 1982, Women’s History Week. One week morphed into one month, and Women’s History Month was born in 1995, celebrating women’s achievements in American history.
Here at Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute (HHRI), females make up most of our leadership team. Let’s take a further look at the women in top leadership positions at HHRI.
Cold Realities: How Science and Speed Save Live in Frostbite Emergencies
Living in Minnesota is not for the faint of heart, with temperatures frequently plummeting to 20 degrees below zero F, and with wind chills, it can drop as low as 50 degrees below zero F. With extreme temperatures such as these, it’s no wonder that frostbite becomes a problem during the winter months. However, with the help of internationally recognized researcher Rachel Nygaard, PhD, who specializes in frostbite, burn, and violent injury prevention, she hopes to mitigate the severity of frostbite seen in Hennepin Healthcare’s patients.
Frostbite is not the same as a burn. “Minor frostbite may involve only the upper layers of skin, but in severe frostbite, the damage occurs deep in the tissue. This is due to blood clots [forming] in the tissue, cutting off blood supply to the fingers, toes, and/or limbs impacted, causing the tissue to die due to lack of oxygen,” explained Dr. Nygaard.
In the Media
Dr. Anne Murray discusses seven persistent myths about taking aspirin daily
Dr. Murray co-authored a landmark 2018 aspirin study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) that disproved the myth that taking a daily low dose of aspirin will keep older adults living longer and healthier lives. The ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly (ASPREE) study found that daily low-dose aspirin did not prolong healthy, independent living (life free of dementia or persistent physical disability). A follow-up study, ASSPREE-XT, published in September 2025, reached the same conclusion.
Read the article about common aspirin myths and the latest recommendations for routine daily use of aspirin on WebMD.
Dr. Anne Frosch interviewed as a 2025 Mpls.StPaul Top Doctor
When Anne Frosch, MD, MPH, discovered that her father had pancreatic cancer in the middle of a global pandemic, she set out on a mission to discover, “Why do certain people respond better to vaccines than others?” Vaccine efficacy has often been tested on younger, healthier people, but not on older adults with comorbidities. Dr. Frosch is exploring the efficacy and dosages of vaccines on these different populations.
Read the full article, "Top Doctors: Decoding Immunity," and scroll down the page to the section labeled "Personalizing Vaccines."
Dr. Amanda Noska discusses "Where are we with HIV in 2026?" on the Healthy Matters Podcast
Infectious Disease Specialist and HIV expert Amanda Noska, MD, MPH, spoke with David Hilden, MD, MPH, FACP, on Season 5, Episode 8 of Hennepin Healthcare's Healthy Matters podcast. During their conversation, Dr. Noska shared how HIV is most commonly transmitted today, how many people it affects, and how prevention has evolved over the years. Tune in here.
My father's experience with stroke and what it taught me
A healthy stroke survivor?
My dad is a brilliant man. He has a PhD in chemical engineering and worked at 3M for most of his career. He worked on many 3M products, but we are most proud of his work on N95 respirators, which were so important during the pandemic. When he is stuck on a problem while working on an invention or a home maintenance task, he reports that a “little problem solver in the back of his head” will keep working on the problem in the background, and he will awake with a solution. This is one of his superpowers.
Dr. Kerry Sheets named a 2025 Mpls.St.Paul Magazine Rising Star
Kerry Sheets, MD, is a geriatrician providing care for older adults in the Hennepin Healthcare clinic and in nursing homes. She has particular interests in complex chronic disease management, dementia, HIV, and functional impairment. Dr. Sheets' research interests are in dementia and blood-based dementia biomarkers, healthy aging, and HIV and aging. View the full list of Hennepin Healthcare's Rising Stars here.