Donald Warne, director of the Master of Public Health Program at NDSU, served as a keynote speaker and panel member at the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network’s event titled “American Indian Health Equity and the Affordable Care Act” on Jan. 29 in St. Paul, Minn.

U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum from Minnesota, who serves on the House Appropriations Committee, also was a keynote speaker at the event. Other speakers included Bethany Snyder, field representative for U.S. Sen. Al Franken, and Ruth Parriott, senior director of the central region for the American Cancer Society's Cancer Action Network. Guest panelists included Warne, Parriott and Laurie Jensen-Wunder, chief mission officer for the Midwest division of the American Cancer Society.

The focus of the event was to explore the impact of the Affordable Care Act on the American Indian community. “Unfortunately, American Indians, particularly in our region, suffer from among the worst disparities in cancer incidence and deaths in the United States,” said Warne, who is a member of the American Cancer Society national board of directors. “The event with the Cancer Action Network was an outstanding opportunity to increase awareness of these issues and discuss ways to intervene effectively.”

Warne earned a Master of Public Health from Harvard School of Public Health and a Doctor of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine.

NDSU is recognized as one of the nation’s top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.