Anne Barry

Anne M. Barry has recently completed six years of service to Ramsey County, Minnesota as the Director of Social Services and the Director of the St. Paul Ramsey County Public Health Department. Before her service at the county level, Barry spent more than three decades in cabinet-level positions within state government, working in health, human services, and finance in the administrations of four Minnesota governors. Barry worked for 10 years at the Minnesota Department of Human Services, serving as Assistant Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner. She also served as Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Health from 1995 to 1999 and Deputy Commissioner of Finance for two separate Governors from 1999-2005.

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After a brief hiatus from the state government in 2005, Barry returned to the Minnesota Department of Human Services in 2006 as the inaugural Chief Compliance Officer for the department until she was appointed Deputy Commissioner of Human Services in 2011. While Commissioner of the Department of Health, Barry partnered with the community and the Urban League to publish the first report on the disparities in health outcomes in Minnesota.

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Since its publication, Barry has been a vocal and active champion of advancing equity, dismantling and reconstructing structures that produce poor health outcomes, and working to reduce the unfair disparities in health outcomes that persist in our community.

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Barry earned her juris doctorate from the Mitchell Hamline School of Law and a master’s of public health administration degree from the University of Minnesota. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in occupational therapy from St. Catherine University. Barry is also adjunct faculty at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health and Arizona State University, College of Health Solutions.

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Barry began her rugby career as a player for the Twin Cities Amazons, playing for select teams at both the state and regional (Midwest) levels. Her administrative positions included being President of the Minnesota Rugby Union for almost 20 years, Minnesota Youth Rugby Board Member and President, Midwest Board and USA Rugby Board Member from 1990-2004, and serving as both the Treasurer and President of USA Rugby.

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