North Dakota
Guest Column: Celebrating innovation and opportunity in North Dakota on National Rural Health Day
It is no secret that there are many challenges confronting rural health care right now, from workforce shortages and declining reimbursement rates to threats to programs like 340B that support safety-net hospitals. But this week, as we celebrate National Rural Health Day on Nov. 20, I am reminded of the many reasons to be hopeful about the future of rural health care.
Earlier this month, the state of North Dakota applied for a share of the $50 billion that will be distributed nationwide beginning next year as part of the newly established Rural Health Transformation Program. With $1 billion on the line for North Dakota, the program could be one of the single greatest investments in rural health that our state has ever seen.
The Rural Health Transformation Program was designed to spur innovative and sustainable approaches to better serve the farmers, ranchers and small business owners who call rural communities home. And in order to qualify for funding, North Dakota crafted an application that demonstrates a strong vision for improving the health of our neighbors and stabilizing rural health care delivery.
As a health system that’s proud to serve mostly rural areas, Essentia Health was grateful to share our ideas for how hospitals can stabilize essential services, such as behavioral health and emergency care, while advancing workforce development and value-based care for the rural and Tribal communities we are privileged to serve. As we wait for the funding to be awarded, I am confident that North Dakota’s application is strong because it reflects the real experience and perspectives of compassionate caregivers on the front lines of rural care.
Here’s why I’m excited by this opportunity:
Attracting and retaining a strong health care workforce remains one of the most significant challenges confronting rural care. North Dakota’s application dedicates over $162 million to train and retain a high-skilled workforce through new residencies, workforce pipelines and recruitment and retention grants.
At Essentia, we’ve had success with first-of-its-kind training programs that address critical gaps in our health care workforce. We just celebrated the first graduate of our surgical technologist apprenticeship program in Fargo. These are the kinds of innovations we must continue pursuing to help care teams like ours advance our mission to make a healthy difference in people’s lives.
If awarded this funding, North Dakota plans to deepen its work to bring high-quality health care closer to home – a mission that Essentia Health whole-heartedly stands behind. With fewer clinicians to staff brick-and-mortar facilities, we need to get creative to meet people where they are – through new methods and in new spaces. A person’s access to expert care shouldn’t be determined by their zip code.
Essentia’s mobile mammography program is one example of how we can enhance access to preventive care without relying on traditional settings. The program brings essential mammography services directly to our neighbors in rural areas and could be expanded across other specialties. Since we rolled out this service, we hear repeatedly from patients who acknowledge they likely wouldn’t have done a screening if it hadn’t been available locally. Rural Health Transformation funds could be used to deploy mobile medical units to rural, underserved communities, with specific services tailored to the greatest needs of the community.
Finally, this funding would allow us to expand scalable programs, like our community health workers and community paramedics. These programs provide tailored support to patients with the goal of diminishing the rate of chronic disease, improving the health of our rural neighbors and reducing emergency room visits and hospital admissions.
The work to transform the future of rural health care has already begun at Essentia Health. The Rural Health Transformation Program represents an opportunity to expand our efforts to bolster our health care workforce, strengthen a care model that prioritizes prevention and patient outcomes and make it easier for North Dakotans to access comprehensive health care close to home.
As we celebrate National Rural Health Day, I am hopeful for the future of rural health care and especially grateful for my talented colleagues, whose dedication to advancing rural health care strengthens the communities where they live and work.
Dr. Stefanie Gefroh is the Essentia Health West Market president.
North Dakota
Grand Forks Founder of Coffee Business Named Small Business 2026 North Dakota Small Business Person of The Year Winner
(U.S. Small Business Administration image)
(KNOX) – The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has named Sandi Luck, founder and CEO of Grand Forks based Bully Brew Coffee and ND Coffee Roastery, as its 2026 North Dakota Small Business Person of the Year winer. This prestigious award recognizes Luck’s visionary leadership, the sustained growth of her coffee enterprise, and her unwavering commitment to the North Dakota community. Luck’s entrepreneurial journey began 18 years ago when she launched a modest coffee kiosk while serving as a professor of marketing and entrepreneurship at the University of North Dakota. By blending her academic expertise with a “community over competition” philosophy, she has scaled her 100 percent woman-owned enterprise into a regional powerhouse.
“During National Small Business Week, SBA is honored to recognize the job creators, builders, and innovators who fuel our nation’s economy and anchor communities across America,” said SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler. In North Dakota, the agency will host a series of events throughout the week, including local award ceremonies and networking sessions to celebrate the grit and resilience of entrepreneurs in their own communities.
“Sandi Luck embodies the spirit of North Dakota entrepreneurship,” said SBA’s North Dakota District Director Al Haut. “From her roots in Grand Forks to the expansion her company across the region, she has proven that a small business can be a powerful engine for both economic growth and community connection.”
Luck strategically leveraged her professional network and SBA resources, including SCORE, the North Dakota Women’s Business Center, and the statewide Small Business Development Center network. A pivotal milestone occurred in 2022 when she purchased a 27,000-square-foot warehouse to store her roasting operations and educational programs. This expansion allowed the ND Coffee Roastery to secure over 120 wholesale accounts, including becoming the official coffee roaster for North Dakota State University.
FARGO — Many in North Dakota are wondering what’s next for the Republican Party in North Dakota after the tension displayed at
the state’s Republican convention.
Several statewide incumbents skipped the process, prompting frustrated delegates to send a message, voting to symbolically distance them from the party by stripping them of their Republican label.
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CARTER COUNTY, Tenn. (WJHL) – A Carter County woman was jailed for months in Fargo, North Dakota, after artificial intelligence mistakenly flagged her for bank fraud.
According to the Carter County Sheriff’s Office, Angela Lipps arrived at the Carter County Detention Center on July 14, 2025, for violation of probation. The Detention Center was informed through the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) that Lipps also had a warrant in North Dakota for being a fugitive of justice.
The sheriff’s office told News Channel 11 that it informed the Cass County Jail in Fargo that it had Lipps in custody. On Oct. 30, 2025, Lipps was extradited to Cass County. Upon arrival, Lipps obtained a criminal defense attorney, Jay Greenwood.
In Fargo, Lipps was held in custody for two months while facing four counts of unauthorized use of personal identifying information and four counts of theft, according to Greenwood.
According to Greenwood, Lipps claimed she had never set foot in the state of North Dakota prior to being transported there by law enforcement.
“We kind of had a discussion as to, ‘I’ve never been in North Dakota before, this is the first time I’ve ever been on an airplane when they brought me here,’ and so, we needed to establish that kind of that alibi line of defense,” Greenwood told News Channel 11.
Greenwood added that he began investigating bank records to prove that Lipps was not in Fargo at the time the bank fraud crimes occurred.
“I kind of reached out to Lipps’ family to see if they could get me some bank records just to show whether or not she was ever here, whether she was using her debit card in Tennessee, and it showed that she had been,” Greenwood said. “I asked for records of a few months back, so I kind of wanted to know if she had been buying the same types of things at the same types of places for a few months, and that showed that, and I gave that information to the state attorney’s office.”
Upon submitting the evidence to the state attorney’s office, the case was dropped shortly before a scheduled preliminary hearing.
Fargo Police Department Chief David Zibolski acknowledged in a press conference on March 23 that it was a mistake by an AI recognition tool used by the West Fargo Police Department, which forwarded that information to the Fargo Police Department.
“Through their AI system, made that identification of Ms. Lipps and forwarded that information,” Zibolski said. “I would say it’s not an identification; it’s a potential suspect, but they forwarded that information to our detectives, who then assumed wrongly that they had also sent in the surveillance photos with that photo ID.”
Greenwood said fault also lies with the Fargo Police Department for not fully investigating the case before issuing a warrant for arrest.
“All I did was ask her family if she had ever left Tennessee, and they were pretty clear that she hadn’t, and then provided me information within about a week,” Greenwood said. “So it’s kind of split both ways. I get when people are going to use the tools that they have, you know, AI tools that they can use. But it can’t be the only tool. And they just left it at that. And this is what happens.”
Zibolski added in the news conference that the Fargo Police Department has issued a temporary directive and the department’s use of facial recognition technology is under review:
- The use of facial recognition technology to identify an unknown person shall only be utilized by members assigned to the criminal investigation division.
- Prior to the use of this technology, the member’s unit commander shall review the case and approve the use of facial recognition technology to assist in creating an investigative lead that may help to identify an unknown person.
- Once reviewed and approved for submission, department members shall only use bona fide status or federal entities to perform the search.
- Department members shall not use any other individual agency or department’s facial recognition AI system.
- All facial recognition identification submissions shall be tracked by the unit commander. The unit commander shall report the results of those submissions monthly to the CID Commander.
The Fargo Police Department is still actively searching for the fraud suspect.
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