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(soft music)

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- It's hard to talk about 
race in Minnesota in general,

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because I think we feel 
like we can and we should

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treat everyone the same way.

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And I think that is 
rooted in a healthy way,

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but if we treat 
everyone the same way,

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we assume everyone's the same.

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Being Vietnamese-American, 
being a refugee,

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when I started doing 
work in medicine,

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I gravitated to 
particularly those who

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are immigrants and refugees.

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As the population changed, 
and as the needs changed,

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I changed with the population.

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And so then my equity work 
had been more around those

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who were dealing with 
opioid use disorder.

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We have a lot of 
individuals come here

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that happen to be Indigenous,

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and I was not doing a 
great service at first,

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because I didn't understand 
what their life was like

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outside of clinic, so I 
knew I had to take time

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and practice to ask questions,

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to learn more about just 
individuals and community,

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beyond just addiction.

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And I learned the good 
stuff, the bad stuff,

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and the everything in between.

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And then also working with 
a researching assistant,

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Koushik Paul, over 
the last three years,

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he and I started 
doing interviews

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with the Native 
American community

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to understand how we 
can better serve them

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around opioid use 
disorder, particularly

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in primary care clinics,

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and make it more 
culturally-centered,

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or family-centered.

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And all these connections 
that we built over time

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in this shared space has 
given me a place of joy

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where I am working 
with communities

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that deserve help, should 
be elevated and celebrated,

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but they have been also 
people who are so accepting,

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and allow me to learn 
and make mistakes

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along the way, too.