ZVMS Executive Director Receives Human Services Award

December 11, 2025

On December 4, Beth Kangas, PhD, the executive director of the Zumbro Valley Medical Society (ZVMS), received the (Rochester) Mayor's Medal of Honor Human Services Award for ZVMS’s Street Medicine project and for co-founding The TABLE (The Team of Advisors Bringing Lived Experience), a team with direct experience of homelessness who provide input on programs, projects, and policies in Rochester. 

"[Kangas] exemplifies the highest ideals of community service and leadership in advancing the health and dignity of our most vulnerable residents in Southeast Minnesota,” according to press materials released by the Rochester mayor’s office. “She has transformed the role of organized medicine in our community to provide direct, compassionate, and culturally informed care to those who often fall through the cracks of traditional health systems.” 

Beth Kangas, PhD, executive director of ZVMS, accepts her Human Services Award on December 4.

ZVMS is a nonprofit professional membership organization serving 3,000 physicians and physicians in training in Dodge, Fillmore, Houston, and Olmsted Counties. ZVMS promotes the health and healthcare of communities in southeast Minnesota through advocacy, service, and education. It is a component medical society of the MMA.