Health

Marie Zephier (Oglala Lakota Nation) is passionate about helping people heal by reconnecting to Indigenous ways. She wants Native people to have access to the healing she has found through culture. As a doctoral candidate in Indigenous health, she is

Neerja Singh believes that no public policy decision should be made without authentic community engagement. As a behavioral health leader in the Minnesota Department of Human Services, she wants those most impacted by policies and practices to have

Rebecca Polston is committed to improving Black maternal health care. She founded one of just five Black-owned, accredited birth centers in the country, creating an alternative, culturally based model to reduce health disparities and increase

Tasha Peltier (Hunkpapa Lakota, Standing Rock Nation) is on a mission to help Indigenous communities reclaim their health and wellness. She wants to start with her homelands, the Standing Rock Nation. She seeks to find ways to center healing and

Noel Nix knows from experience that good intentions and ideas are not enough to create lasting change; meaningful action is also necessary. In his positions as a St. Paul City Council aide, Ramsey County Commissioner assistant, and now director of

Farhia Budul embraced her culture, community, and faith to achieve recovery. Her experience led her to develop culturally specific recovery support for her fellow East Africans in Minnesota. As one of the first Somali women in Minnesota to openly

Pahoua Yang, Ph.D., believes in the power of cultural healing. A leader at Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, the largest regional mental health provider for Southeast Asian communities, she understands how valuable culturally based healing can be yet how

Dr. Rahel Nardos has a bold vision for ending health disparities for women and girls. She believes the fierce urgency and scale of disparities in women's health requires a population-level focus on root causes and systemic barriers that span culture