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Changemakers

Marcella Prokop: Creating Rural Fellowship in Storytelling

As both a writer and an educator, Prokop encourages her students and communities to think about their unique interactions with place.
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Zedé Harut: Stability With Dignity

The families that Harut serves are primarily single mothers living at low-income or poverty levels.
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Editor’s Letter: “Move Your Feet”

This magazine is filled with people who know that law enforcement and gun ownership are not the answer to reducing violence. We meet Minnesotans who offer support to help make neighbors safer and healthier.
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Recognizing Four Other Changemaking Voices This Year

Changemakers recognition is usually given to people who tend to be unknown outside of their immediate communities, and who have not yet appeared in our pages. This year we wanted to give recognition to two people for lifetime achievements as they step into retirement (Sue Abderholden and Pamela Zeller), Nekima Levy Armstrong and the impactful Target boycott protesting their pullback from diversity pledges, and the PFund Foundation for trans health.
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Cathy Johnson: From Classroom to Unexpected Lobbyist

As a former teacher and a master gardener, Johnson could not have predicted that in 2024 she would step into a significant leadership role, which has included testifying multiple times to the Minnesota legislature.
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Karen Diver: Protector of Indigenous Scholarship

“As an Indigenous person, I benefited from the choices my parents made to make it a little better for me. And so that becomes my obligation, right? How do I make it a little better for the ones after me? One less burden, one less policy they have to overcome.”
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Remembering Representative Melissa Hortman

Former senator Patricia Torres Ray pointed out: “There was one specific thing that resonated with a lot of people about Melissa, and that was her ability to elevate women and to give women of color the opportunity to lead important issues. That was not popular."
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ANEW’s Recovery Clinic: Can-Do Spirit

“All human beings are stronger together,” says Arradondo-Russell, who oversees day-to-day operations. “The opposite of addiction is connection.”
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Britt Howell: Proactive About Health

“If we can keep seeing powerful women, who are doing extraordinary things, on the front of magazines, and inside the magazines,” then others will be inspired to do similar works, she says.
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Marla Spivak: Bee Researcher Leaves Legacy

After more than three decades at the University of Minnesota as a bee researcher and professor, Spivak is retiring on December 31.
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Leah Lemm: Musicality and Native Storytelling

  Leah Lemm is a radio and podcast journalist and…
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Ayan Omar: Connecting Diversity in St. Cloud

“I had the privilege of attending school with 40-plus nations represented in one building."
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Alice Moren: Taking the Big View in Grand Rapids

“We see senior citizens who worked their whole lives but didn’t have a pension — the food support they might get does not last a month. I try to help the community understand all faces of poverty.”
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Marvina Haynes: Determined Voice for the Wrongfully Accused

Through her advocacy, Marvina Haynes discovered that wrongful incarceration was common.
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Changemaker: Outspoken PFAS critic Amara Strande, who died from cancer in 2023

Originally published May 3, 2023 The photos displayed…
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