University of Minnesota professor Rachel Hardeman is accused of plagiarism, leaving her multimillion-dollar antiracism center in jeopardy

University of Minnesota Prof. Rachel Hardeman 's rise to academic superstardom included major media coverage of her research on racial bias and maternal and infant mortality.

Now, two former employees allege that she plagiarized the research proposal that helped rocket her into a national figure.

Hardeman secured a landmark National Institutes of Health grant in 2021 with a hypothesis and methodologies she copied from her mentee’s dissertation proposal, they allege.

She will leave the university on May 14 , leaving the Center for Antiracism Research for Health Equity in jeopardy.

The central premise of Davis ’s dissertation was a hypothesized link between infant mortality and police brutality.

Davis said that Hardeman “plagiarized verbatim” the premise of her dissertation in January 2020 while tweaking it to suit her Minneapolis focus.

Hardeman simply retrofitted the same research question to focus on the August 2016 death of Philando Castile , she said.

Hardeman recruited Davis to execute the research aim plagiarized from her work, she said.

Hardeman encouraged staff to delete emails that could be subject to the Freedom of Information Act , Davis alleges.

University of Minnesota Office of Integrity found that there was no plagiarism but rather an honest error’ on Rachel Hardeman , Davis wrote.