The Connectors
Meet the 2023 Cohort & Core Connectors
Our 2023 Cohort, composed of first-year and second-year members of this two-year experience, joins our Core Connectors in this adaptive and emergent journey to create meaningful exchanges in and across our Minnesota communities.
2023 Cohort Connectors
24 Minnesotans with diverse backgrounds in leadership, expertise, geography, culture, class, age, gender, sexuality, and race
These leaders in the arts, community development, education, environment, healthcare, and business sectors represent many regions of Minnesota, including Anoka, Becker, Beltrami, Big Stone, Cass, Clay, Fillmore, Hubbard, Lake, Lyon, Otter Tail, Ramsey, Scott, Winona, and Yellow Medicine counties. They commit to four community intensive weekend gatherings over a two-year period, where they set out to understand and value the culture, landscape, context and people of each place. This year’s cohort members look forward to Community Intensive weekends in Mahnomen/White Earth Nation and Winona County.
First-Year Cohort
Shawna Bullen-Fairbanks
BemidjiArtist, Poet, Writer, Advocate, and Activist
Ashley Dwire
MarshallAnti-Racist, Avid Non-Fiction Reader, Advocate, Activist, Scientist, Safe Parent
Mary Gaasch
PuposkyMom, Mayor, reluctant chicken farmer, community builder, advocate, storyteller, obsessive reader, easily distracted by plants.
Kathryn Gonzalez
BemidjiDancer, foodie, lover of life, Earth-whisperer, visionary, connector, communicator, social transformer
Sarah Johnson
WinonaConnector, Healer, Weaver, Illuminator, Creator
Katie Kangas
Ham Lakerural enthusiast, chaos coordinator, mother of 3 girls, novice musician, clay-player, explorer of nature and small towns, avid learner, child of Christ
Kara Maloney
Lanesborocity mouse turned country mouse, scandinavian rosemaler, novice birder, community connector, pumpkin farmer, track coach
Kate Mudge
AshbyArts advocate, metalsmith, connector, trivia aficionado, dog lover, gardener, baker, dreamer.
Anne O’Keefe-Jackson
MortonMother, wife, sister, antie, grandma, artist, art advocate, avid learner, traveler.
Lucia Possehl
Minneapoliscommunity connector, daughter, sister, auntie, caretaker, artist, student and educator, place-maker, systems-thinker
Isaac Russell
Saint PaulFather, husband, policy advocate, community builder, eternal volunteer, recreational foreign policy pundit, martial arts practitioner, food enthusiast.
Sarah Sampedro
Minneapolismaker, outdoor-lover, runner, walker, bicycler, reader, art-lover, mother, community connector, food-lover
Don Sherman
OrtonvilleGrandfather, Pickleball addict, maker space advocate, sometimes extroverted, nature based, socially engaged artist, nonsectarian kayaker
Hawona Sullivan Janzen
Saint Paulwriter, thinker, seeker, finder, mother, daughter, griever, traveler
Second-Year Cohort
Conie Borchardt
St. PaulListener-Vibration. Heart Artist. Luth-opalian Sufi Dancer. Mixed Asian. Rural-Urban. Gen X-er. Community Song & Dance Leader. Budding Organizer & Storyteller. 
Autumn Cavender
Granite FallsDakota, mother, partner, midwife, decolonization activist, Indigenous animist, artist, ancestral femme, Sci-fi/high fantasy nerd
Laura Joseph
St. Paulmother by choice, appreciator of slowness and rest, hoosher/small world maker, believer in embodied knowledge, seeker of meaningful/deep connections, curator
Penny Kagigebi
Detroit LakesAdvocate for JOY and Mino-Bimaadiziwin (good life/good health) through Ojibwe Culture+Arts, QUEER2-Spirit, Relative-Mom-Grandmother-Wife-Niece-Sister-Auntie
Marcus Larson
JordanGardener, Painter, chameleon, Social Butterfly, YouTube addict.
Su Legatt
Moorheadartist, mother, daughter, photographer, rural advocate, connector, baker, love of the outdoors, musician
Jeremy Radtke
Granite FallsChronic optimist, Designer, Fun-haver, Communicator, Western MN advocate, Family guy, Lover of Adventure
Joy Davis Ripley
WinonaWriter, photographer, artist, professor, mother, life partner, daughter, friend, cyclist, gardener, Southerner, introvert, person with disabilities
Laura Seter
LaporteMom, partner, daughter, granddaughter, sister, gardener-in-training, podcast junkie, journal keeper, evolver. Double Scorpio
Dan Thewis
Two HarborsFather, Husband, Son, Brother, Teacher, Coach, Friend, Cook, Christian
Core Connectors
The Core Connectors (or Steering Committee) design and facilitate this learning exchange from year to year
Minnesota RUX began in 2020 with a cohort of statewide Steering Committee members who stewarded the program's adaptation to Minnesota from the Kentucky RUX model (which began in 2014). In 2023, Kentucky RUX hosted their 27th community intensive in their 15th host community and now includes an alumni of 260 Kentuckians from 49 counties.
Joe Allen
Mahnomen; White Earth NationProject Director, Gizhiigin Arts Incubator
Father, Lakota, Ojibwe, Artist, Rural, Mentor, Entrepreneur, Introvert
Anna Claussen
MinneapolisFounder, Voices for Rural Resilience
Farmers daughter, mother, tomboy, social strategist, twin, scarf hoarder
Dawn Espe
StaplesEquitable Development Specialist, Region Five Development Commision
Wife, mother, planner, gardener, cook
Maddy Fisher
NorthfieldEconomic Development Specialist / Lead for MN Fellow, Southern MN Initiative Foundation
leader, dancer, friend, daughter and deep conversationalist
Matt Fluharty
WinonaExecutive Director, Art of the Rural
father, visitor, writer, artist, curator, zen wanderer, listener
Ashley Hanson
Granite FallsFounder and Director, Department of Public Transformation and PlaceBase Productions
theater artist, enthusiast, climber, Leo, extrovert, adventurer, yogi
Emma Higgins
MinneapolisLead for Minnesota Fellow, Grant and Program ResearcherNew Yorker, Runner, Improviser, Extrovert, Traveler, Barista, Rural Advocate, Advocate for Women
Cheryal Hills
BrainerdExecutive Director, Region Five Development Commisionrural, feminist, gardener, bridger, spiritual, atheist, change agent, equity advocate
Salma Ahmed Ibrahim
HibbingLead for Minnesota Mental Health FellowSomali, Black, Muslim, Community Organizer, Writer
Teresa Kittridge
MarcellFounder 100 Rural Womenmother, sister, aunt, rural advocate, rural woman, curious, traveler, community servant, seasoned
Benya Kraus
WasecaCo-Founder & Minnesota Executive Director, Lead for AmericaDaughter, sister, Rural Advocate, Catholic, Thai-Midwest Fusionist, Eating with Hands Enthusiast
Jane Leonard
St. PaulPresident, Growth & JusticeTwin, community builder from birth, family kin-keeper, Rurban advocate, flashlight/duct tape gal
Jonathan Locust
WinonaAssociate Vice-President, Office of Equity & Inclusive Excellence, Winona State UniversityBlack American man, Father, Husband, Meditator, Entrepreneur, Committed to bringing higher vibrations to the world.
Kathy Mouacheupao
St. PaulExecutive Director, Metropolitan Regional Arts CouncilHmong American woman, daughter of refugees, arts administrator, auntie, Saint Paulite, creative collaborator, optimist
Anna Pollock
WasecaTheater Director, Waseca Public Schoolscookbook collector, writer, gardener, coffee drinker, storyteller, and Meridenite
Jeremy Staab
MinneapolisDirector, National Advancement at Artspace Projects, Inc.Dakota, Arts Administrator, Social Justice Advocate, Brother, Uncle, Friend
Erik Takeshita
MinneapolisInterim Executive Director, Arrowhead Regional Arts CouncilSon, grandson, husband, father, Community builder. committed to social justice
Moira Villiard
DuluthCommunity-engaged artist, freelancer, and muralista community organizer, muralist, a descendent of both Indigenous and settler heritage, emo/punk kid at heart, a pluralist, a sweet potato and squash chef
Cassie Williams
Inver Grove HeightsLabor Educator, University of Minnesota
Black woman, mother, artist, poet, educator
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