Bush Fellows Learning Logs

Like most communities in Western North Dakota, Minot has seen a dramatic influx of residents due to increased oil production. At the same time, the community continues to recover from a massive flood that displaced more than 12,000 area residents. Still, Megan Laudenschlager has big dreams for Minot. And from her position as finance and program director at the Minot Area Community Foundation, she can see the pivotal role philanthropy will play in shaping Minot's destiny. Megan will use her Bush Fellowship to acquire the skills and connections necessary to engage area residents in crafting the future of the community.

Marvin Sims wants to level the playing field for all disadvantaged students. As the dean of students at Irondale High School, he created Students Together Respecting the Importance and Purpose of Education in Schools (STRIPES), a mentoring program that partnered with teachers, parents, community members and business leaders to create a safety net for students. The program proved so successful that the superintendent asked him to expand the program to three more schools in the district. Marvin will use his Bush Fellowship to study public schools around the country that are closing the achievement gap. He plans on using this experience to create a comprehensive program that inspires all kids to use education as the gateway to their accomplishing their dreams. 

When she isn't developing, improving and disseminating world-class neurosurgical techniques for Medtronic's Deep Brain Stimulation Therapy, Sylvia Bartley is thinking of ways to address the disparities in educational success between African-American and Caucasian children. Specifically, she is interested in figuring out how to take the success of high-achieving schools like Minneapolis's Harvest Network and develop an adoptable turn-around strategy that can help close the achievement gap. The Fellowship will allow Sylvia to take time off from Medtronic and focus her time, energy and considerable intellect on this important work.

Nimo Farah knows the power of storytelling. As an artist, she wants to affirm and empower the leadership potential of young Somalis through stories that pull from Somali tradition and culture. Nimo will use her Bush Fellowship to gain a masters of arts in leadership so that she can work to understand how to better use arts and culture to engage immigrant youth in making the challenging transition of living in a dual culture.

Jamal Adam has a unique understanding of the vital role community colleges can play in helping refugees, immigrants and first-generation students achieve success. Jamal grew up in Somalia and fled at age 13 to a refugee camp in Kenya to escape war. After seven years, he came to the United States with a dream of going to college. Jamal earned a degree at Minneapolis Technical and Community College, where he currently serves as a counselor and instructor. He will use his Fellowship to complete a Ph.D in educational policy and administration at the University of Minnesota. Combining his experience and education, he seeks to play a leadership role in creating affordable and innovative postsecondary educational opportunities for all.

Lori Saroya co-founded the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Minnesota (CAIR-MN), the state's only Muslim civil rights and legal advocacy organization, when she was a senior in college. Six years later, Lori's vision is to create a society where American Muslims and other racial minorities are treated with dignity and respect in the workplace, at school and in the community. The Bush Fellowship will allow Lori the opportunity to pursue a master's in nonprofit management, as well as explore how other organizations similarly situated to CAIR-MN are run.

As a Cook County Commissioner, and former mayor of Grand Marais, Minnesota, Sue Hakes knows that rural communities are wrestling with big challenges that require strong leaders. She also knows that the challenges of small-town politics prevent many locals from stepping up to leadership positions. That is why Sue is working to build up leadership capacity in Northeastern Minnesota by serving as a mentor to individual leaders and forging partnerships between government, public and private sectors. She will use her Fellowship to pursue graduate education at the University of Minnesota, Duluth and at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Maureen Ramirez started working at the University of Minnesota in 2001 in Latino student recruitment. She quickly saw how the system worked against students, particularly those who were undocumented, and was determined to act. Maureen started organizing Dream Act campaigns, but she knew she could do more by working to make changes within the system. With the help of a team of friends and supporters. she was elected to the University of Minnesota's Board of Regents. Maureen wants to continue to change institutions from within. She will use her Fellowship to further develop her leadership and administrative skills to become a transformative leader who can help restore trust in our public institutions.

Since 2000, Jacquie Berglund has had one thing on her mind: Turning beer into food. That's the mission of FINNEGANS, the social enterprise she founded nearly 15 years ago and the first beer in the world to donate 100 percent of its profits back to the community. A social entrepreneur before you could Google "social entrepreneur" and get links to thousands of books, articles and podcasts dedicated to the concept, Jacquie will use her Fellowship to expand and develop her own social entrepreneurial leadership skills. She will also use her experience to build support for social entrepreneurs throughout the region

As a journalist, corporate PR manager and consultant, Syl Jones has spent his much of his career at the intersection of healthcare and communications. Merging that experience and his background as a playwright and producer of award-winning videos, Syl aims to address racial healthcare disparities by working with physicians and public health officials to craft films, theatrical presentations and journalism to move our region to create a more equitable health care system. To that end, he will use his Fellowship to pursue a master's degree in narrative medicine at Columbia University in New York City.

Malini Srivastava wants North Dakota to become more energy efficient. That's no easy feat: the state is one of the nation's coldest, has an abundance of fossil fuel resources, ranks first in per-capita residential energy consumption, and is dead last in delivering energy-efficiency programs. However, she's banking on North Dakota's culture of neighbors-helping-neighbors to make an impact. Malini, an architect, wants to empower neighborhood action groups toward achieving energy efficiency and cost savings in homes one neighborhood at a time. To achieve this, she will use her Fellowship to develop her leadership and organizational skills and to increase her technical expertise.

Michael Strand fears our technology has compromised our ability to tackle complex challenges. Issues that could easily be resolved through conversation are now recast as "zero-sum" games with a clear "winners" and "losers." Social media has amplified this transformation by creating a digital distance between people. Michael, an assistant professor and department head of visual arts at North Dakota State University, will use his Fellowship to increase his depth of knowledge in complimentary fields such as rhetoric and communications, then leverage this knowledge to expand the depth of his artistic practice, and finally work with North Dakota State University Extension Services to introduce his work to the community.

As Jessica Jackson sees it, hope is an essential, tangible life tool. But for many in the African-American community, particularly youth who have experienced tragedy, violence and disparity, hope has given way to hopelessness. Jessica wants to develop a premiere community-based program that increases hope, engagement and well-being among African-American youth across the region. She will use her Fellowship to pursue a master's certificate in psychology, examine cutting-edge research on the science of hope and character development, and engage a network of leading psychologists, researchers and authors to develop a model to measure hope, confidence and inspiration among African-Americans.

As executive director of Local Initiatives Support Corporation - Twin Cities, Andriana Abariotes works with more than 30 different community-based developers and neighborhood partnerships to direct millions of dollars in investments to some of the region's most challenging neighborhood. Andriana sees an opportunity to dramatically improve the quality of life in the neighborhoods she serves by working to transform the relationship between health care and community development organizations. She will use her Fellowship to build the skills and relationships necessary to bring this vision to life.

Imagine a candidate forum at the peak of a tough mayoral campaign in a major metro area where not two, not three, but as many as six candidates thought they had a chance at victory. Do you imagine the forum concluding with the candidates' ideas being brought to life by an improv comedy troupe? Well, Tane Danger did. And he made it happen, too. As co-founder and host of the Theater of Public Policy, Tane is developing new (often hilarious) models of civic discourse that facilitate solutions to shared problems. He will use his Fellowship to pursue a degree from the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Affairs. And yes, that is his real name.

Charlie Thayer wants to make it easier for stories about Native culture to be told in the voice of Native people. Particularly stories of healing from historical trauma or its aftermath. His vision is to create a platform from which the voices of the seventh generation can educate, advocate and strengthen their communities. With his Fellowship he will gain additional academic credentialing and strive to deepen the trust relationships he’s established through his work with farmers and landowners for the Indian Land Tenure Foundation.

In 2009, Marge Anderson, then the chief executive of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, tapped Jennifer Waltman to join her cabinet as commissioner of community development. Jennifer wasn't sure she was the right fit for the job, but Anderson, who passed away last year, challenged her to step out of her comfort zone and step up as a leader. The experience inspired her to not only serve the Tribe, but to also go back to school to earn a degree in psychology and pursue a career as a therapist. Jennifer has seen first-hand how untreated trauma has contributed to mental health disparities among Native Americans. She will use her Fellowship to develop integrated mental health and medical services that aim to eliminate mental health stigma.

Chris Stewart has served on the Minneapolis School Board and is the founding director of the African American Leadership Forum. He will use his Fellowship to research, design and prototype a new model for a networked, intergenerational black leadership community that increases connectivity, reciprocity and equity in Minnesota's black leadership pipeline.

Lakota peace-making has a long tradition in Richard Iron Cloud's family--his grandparents participated in the 1851 and 1868 Peace Treaty at Fort Laramie both as leaders and interpreters. Richard will use his Bush Fellowship to complete a Ph.D. in psychology and focus his dissertation on Indigenous peace-making systems. The increased knowledge and leadership capacity he will gain through the Fellowship will support him in bringing a peace-making structure to his work for the Oglala Sioux Tribe, where he is charged with updating and maintaining its natural resources code.

For Laura Zabel, creativity is a natural resource. As executive director of Springboard for the Arts, she has helped ensure the region maintains an abundance of creativity by connecting artists with the resources they need to make a living and a life. Under her leadership, Springboard has grown into a nationally recognized economic and community development organization. Laura wants to ensure that when communities face big, complex challenges, they know how to find and call on its artists to help think of creative solutions. She will use her Fellowship to engage with a national network of colleagues to build skills and develop new strategies that can propel this work.

Sherman Patterson wants to end the culture of gun violence in Minneapolis. An audacious goal, but few are better suited for the job than Sherman. A public safety policy aide for former Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak. A community liaison for Minneapolis Police Chief Janee Harteau. A resident of a Minneapolis neighborhood notorious for gun violence. He has built the connections and earned the respect, both in the corridors of power and on the street corners, that are necessary to tackle this issue. Sherman will use his Fellowship to devise and implement a wide range of strategies to combat gun violence in our communities.

While most attorneys at this stage in their career are fighting to make partner, Christina Sambor is fighting human trafficking in North Dakota. The rural isolation, overburdened law enforcement agencies and explosion in transient populations in the oil patch have created conditions in which human trafficking can thrive. Christina is part of a burgeoning grassroots movement of legislators, survivors, service providers and others who are working to better understand and address what amounts to modern-day slavery. The Bush Fellowship will allow her to build skills that will be useful in the fight against human trafficking.

As imam of Masjid An-Nur in North Minneapolis, Makram El-Amin’s work extends beyond the 200 families who call the mosque their spiritual home to include the neighborhood and to touch on diverse issues of crosscultural understanding, home ownership, immigration reform and civic engagement. With his Bush Fellowship, he hopes to learn from the experience of past cultural groups—African Americans, Catholics, Jews and the Irish—who were at one time viewed as “the other.” By expanding his leadership capacity, he believes he can act as a bridge of understanding that will offer Minnesota Muslims the chance to fully contribute to their communities, schools and cultural organizations.