Amáda Márquez Simula

Mayor | Connector | Cultural resilience builder

As the first Chicana mayor of Columbia Heights, Amáda Márquez Simula is infusing inclusion, cultural celebration and grassroots power into the civic life of this first-ring Twin Cities suburb. Amáda is passionate about creating space for every resident, from Somali elders to Eastern European retirees, to feel seen and valued. A former artist, activist and nonprofit co-founder, Amáda brings the values of care and collaboration to every part of her leadership, skillfully engaging a diverse community even when perspectives differ. 

Amáda’s leadership is marked by a rare combination of high-level strategy and everyday acts of care and service. Whether organizing the city’s first Pride Festival, championing affordable housing or launching the Bilingual Monarch Butterfly Festival, she connects environmental sustainability to cultural identity, and municipal policy to meaningful relationships. 

With the Bush Fellowship, she will grow her language skills, deepen her leadership training and build a replicable model for inclusive, equity-driven city governance grounded in grassroots experience and cultural pride.

What change are you working to create?

I’m working to make Columbia Heights and communities like it a model for inclusive, equitable and sustainable urban life. Safe, affordable housing is at the heart of this vision. So are bilingual festivals, community gardens and cultural celebrations that reflect who we are and where we come from. I want to use art, nature and policy as tools to connect people across differences and create platforms for conversation, belonging and healing. I want to create a future where all residents feel they belong, are represented in government and can contribute meaningfully to our shared life.

Why are you the one to lead this change?

I co-founded HeightsNEXT to build environmental and social resilience, then ran for mayor, winning in a landslide. I’ve helped diversify city commissions, hired a new police chief through a community-led process and secured $25 million for safety and infrastructure improvements. I bring together Somali mothers, LGBTQ youth, conservative seniors and new immigrants—all of whom know me by name. Everyone deserves the chance to succeed, and I am dedicated to creating systems and spaces that enable this to happen.