As chief equity officer, Dr. Karen McKinney is working to make the Minnesota Department of Human Services an anti-racist institution. Before joining DHS, she spent 24 years at Bethel University as a professor in the Biblical & Theology Studies Department. For the last five years she also served as the community liaison to communities of color for the university’s Office of Diversity. Prior to that, she held a variety of positions in youth ministry, health care and education and served as a consultant on anti-racism, equity and diversity.
She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature from the University of Minnesota; a Master of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary in California; a Master of Science degree in experiential education from Mankato State University, which she completed after receiving a Bush Fellowship; and a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of St. Thomas.
