Dr. John M.
Taborn, Ph.D, Vice Chairperson
Dr. Taborn is a
licensed psychologist and President of J Taborn
Associates Inc., a comprehensive psychological
services firm in the Twin Cities. He is an Associate
Professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota in
the Department of Educational Psychology and former
Chair of the Department of Afro-American and African
Studies. His research reflects his interest in the
mental health of minority groups as well as the
impact of racism on personal and organizational
functioning in the public and private sectors. Over
the years, he has consulted with the leadership and
staff of numerous businesses, corporations, public
and private schools, colleges and universities
throughout Minnesota and U.S. Dr. Taborn frequently
serves as an expert witness by the courts and legal
system in cases relating to discrimination and
family custody issues.
Dr. Crossett has 24
years of experience in public education throughout
the Midwest, 11 of that as a special education
teacher and 13 as a school psychologist. During her
career she has worked in eight districts across
Minnesota and Wisconsin with a variety of cultures
and economic settings. She is currently employed in
the Osseo-Maple Grove Public School District (MN’s
4th largest) and is serving her third term as
chairperson of the District’s Psychology Department,
which consists of 17 Psychologists. Her areas of
specialty in the school system involve multicultural
and bias free assessment and program planning and
consultation for children with autism and emotional
disturbances. Recently she served on the state of
Minnesota’s Committee on Public Education that
helped develop and author the new criteria for
educational autism spectrum disorders. Lyle Rustad,
Executive Director
In Minnesota, in
addition to the Diversity Foundation, Inc., he was
producer, director and co-founder with Dr. Tom
Eiselt of Diversity Productions of Mankato. He has
volunteered in support of Vietnam and Gulf War
veterans, in chemical abuse prevention and recovery,
in organizations serving persons with disabilities,
in a St. Paul Police Department youth mentoring
program, the St. Cloud Mayor’s Violence Prevention
Council, the Central Minnesota Multicultural Task
Force and NAACP, and the St. Cloud team of the
Minnesota Churches’ Anti-Racism Initiative. He
coordinated filming and assisted with the 1995 North
American Indigenous Games, the 1995-98 Birch Coulee
"Gathering of Kinship" healing events, and the 1997
dedication of Reconciliation Park in Mankato,
honoring living Dakota elders and the memory of the
38 Dakota warriors hung at Mankato following the
1862 "Dakota Conflict." BOARD OF DIRECTORS Mr. Jerry L.
Carter, Journalist/Marketing/Internet
Information Specialist
James B. Jensen,
Attorney/ Small Business Owner Mr. Jensen and his
wife Julie, are currently co-owners and operators of
the Wild Bird Center of St. Cloud. He previously
worked over 10 years in product development in the
legal department at Bankers Systems, Inc., also in
St Cloud. He is a graduate of the William Mitchell
College of Law, with experience in agricultural and
small business financial planning. In addition he
has done extensive legal work, held board
memberships with non-profit agencies, senior citizen
law, NSP mediation, as well as working in numerous
social and environmental organizations and legal
services for St. Cloud, Winona County as well as
other communities around the state of Minnesota.
Jim's Vita is also presently being updated. Dr. Bill McNeil,
Pathologist, Chief of Winona Community Hospital.
Mr. Oscar Reed,
Creator & Director of programs for youth and
families challenged by poverty
A former outstanding
running back for Colorado State University that led
to a legendary nine-year career as a running back
for the Minnesota Vikings that included seven NFL
Division championships, along with 3 Super Bowl
appearances. Mr. Reed later served 15 years as youth
programs director for the Minneapolis Public Housing
Authority. He is now director of the Community
Empowerment and Prevention Program in Minneapolis,
and a consultant on the circle process for
preventing violence and resolving conflict. With
fellow Viking legend Jim Marshall, he is co-founder
of a youth and family service agency, Life’s Missing
Link, Inc. He has an extensive background in the
Native American restorative justice program, and in
leading programs for youth development, employment
and pre-apprenticeship, as well as many other
experiences related to volunteerism, community
Public Relations and charitable fund-raising.
Sgt. Mamie
Singleton, Supervisor Investigator, St. Paul
Police Department
Betty Smith,
Mayo Clinic Medical Technician
Travis Zimmerman,
Director, Minnesota Family Investment Program
services, American Indian Opportunities
Industrialization Center (AIOIC)
From 1995-97, as
executive director of the St. Cloud Area American
Indian Center, Mr. Zimmerman helped develop programs
to provide services and opportunities to the urban
Indian population never before served. He was
instrumental in starting the annual “Unity Pow Wows”
designed to create awareness and improve
understanding between the Native and Non-Native
populations in St. Cloud and surrounding Central
Minnesota. He has served on the St. Cloud Human
Rights Commission and worked with “at risk youth” as
a substance abuse/Youth counselor and as a community
liaison worker with the Boys and Girls Clubs of
Central Minnesota, and at the St. Cloud Children's
Home.
CONSULTANTS
Mr. Favorite earned
an MA in educational psychology and studied in the
Educational Leadership Doctoral Program at the
University of St. Thomas, where he also became the
first Native American ever inducted into their
Athletic Hall of Fame. He has worked as a recruiter,
advisor, counselor, program administrator or
curriculum developer at the University of St.
Thomas, the University of Minnesota-Duluth, as well
as Public and Native American schools throughout
Minneapolis and St. Paul. From 1990-93, he served as
Educational Director and Home School Coordinator for
the Shakopee M’dewakanton Sioux (Dakota)
Reservation. He currently serves on numerous boards
and committees including the White Earth Tribal
College Board of Trustees and Elder Mental Health
Advisory Committee. Andy has broad expertise in the
history of oppression of indigenous peoples in
Minnesota and the USA, and is in high demand as an
educator and public speaker.
L.S. (Lou) Shoen, Consultant Mr. Schoen is a
consultant on issues of racism/anti-racism and
multicultural diversity in institutions, on
communication and reconciliation, race and religion,
and on non-profit financial development. He retired
in July 1998 as a commission director for the
Minnesota Council of Churches (MCC) where he was
lead organizer of the ecumenical Minnesota Churches’
Anti-Racism Initiative (MCARI), and supervised the
Minnesota Indian Ecumenical Ministry and MCC Refugee
Services, among others, and managed the Sin
Fronteras migrant loan program. He coordinated
cross-cultural studies for the United Theological
Seminary of the Twin Cities (1993-95), and a study
of the potential for collaboration in multicultural
programming for the Minnesota Consortium of
Theological Schools (1993-98).
In addition to
consulting, Lou remains active as an anti-racism
trainer/facilitator and volunteer organizer in MCARI
and in the Episcopal Church where he has held
several volunteer leadership positions in the
Diocese of Minnesota, regionally and nationally, as
well as in his parish. He is author of After
Jubilee: Justice…or Exile? – The Church in the
Global Economy (Episcopal Parish Services, New York,
NY, September, 2000). He studied political
science and organizational development and holds
degrees in journalism and religious leadership. A
1963-64 CBS Foundation Fellow at Columbia
University, he also spent 30 years as a newspaper,
radio and television journalist and corporate public
relations executive. COLLABORATORS
Mayor Jerry Miller
and City of Winona, Winona, MN. Rodney Steiner, Wabasha descendant, family/ Native American Historian from Santee Dakota Reservation, Nebraska; Independent Businessman, now Kansas City, KS Roger Trudell, Chairman Santee/Sioux Nation
MAJOR ADVISORS Daniel Pierce
Bergin, Producer-Director Twin Cities Public
Television
|
Mr.
Lohnes is currently President of Lohnes Strategies LLC,
producing Job Fairs at various sites around Minneapolis and
St. Paul, MN. Previously he worked at American Indian OIC,
Division of Indian Works and Peak Staffing, Inc., one of the
Twin Cities largest temporary employment agencies for
minorities. He has served as the president of the Minnesota
League of Human Rights Commissions and had served on the
Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission for over 10 years. He
was also CEO and board member of the North American
Indigenous Games (NAIG) held in the Twin Cities in 1995 were
over 8,000 Native Youth in Olympic style athletic
competition and cultural activities.
Mr. Rustad has been the principal organizer and
overall production manager in developing the
Diversity Foundation, its network and services,
to-date. For more than 30 years, he has worked and
volunteered in organizations such as the American
Indian Movement, St. Cloud Area Indian Center, North
American Indigenous Games, US Youth Games, Boys
Clubs of America, NAACP, and other human services,
many related to youth and criminal justice programs,
and most reflecting concern for racial justice. A
graduate of the University of Minnesota where he
studied social work, Mr. Rustad pursued graduate
study in education and rehabilitation counseling at
the University of South Carolina and, after serving
in Vietnam, was a psychiatric social worker in
military corrections. Later, as director of the
1,200-member Greater Columbia (SC) Boys Club,
supervising more than 100 staff and volunteers, he
facilitated its first racial integration, and
inclusion of children with disabilities. He
co-founded the South Carolina Child Abuse Council
and the People Against Sexual Assault program.
Mr.
Carter is an Internet Information Specialist, web
site designer and program specialist. He started and
designed the company's Internet Help Desk. Formerly
a county government reporter for the St. Cloud
Times, the Duluth News-Tribune and other Greater
Minnesota newspapers. His journalism experience
includes coverage of city and county government,
racial discrimination, socioeconomic developments,
and human relations. His heritage (Spanish and
Southwestern Native American) gives him the ability
to enhance news stories through a minority
perspective. As a volunteer with the St. Cloud Area
Indian Center, Mr. Carter begin to present a more
balanced account of news stories related to Native
American issues for area publications. 
Dr.
William "Bill" McNeil, Director of
Pathology and Clinical Laboratory Medicine at
Winona Community Memorial Hospital, Winona,
Minnesota
Sgt.
Singleton, after 25+ years of experience serving in
the patrol, investigative and administrative
divisions of the St. Paul Police Department retired
and began work in Washington with Homeland Security.
In addition to being one of the first African
American females in Minnesota law enforcement, she
was also selected to serve as one of first female
field training officers for 10 of those years. Prior
to graduating from the St. Paul Police Academy, Ms.
Singleton received a scholarship to study
communication at Macalester College. She has since
completed the criminal justice program at the
College of St. Thomas and is continuing to pursue
her Education in Business Management at the
University of Minnesota.
Betty
Smith was born and raised in Rochester, Minn., and
has been employed by the Mayo Clinic for the past 20
years in their Transfusion Medicine Department.
Previously, Betty was employed by Sears Roebuck,
Rochester Post Bulletin and the Northwestern Bell
Telephone Company. Her other volunteer and community
activities have varied from serving as Brownie and
Cub Scout leader, Sunday school teacher, Methodist
Hospital support group organizer, parent volunteer
coordinator with Rochester Public Schools as well as
teen drug abuse advisor with the Rochester Chamber
of Commerce. She graduated from Rochester Public
Schools, and has completed many Mayo Clinic
Continuing Education Programs as well as pursuing a
business/marketing degree at Rochester Community and
Technical College.
As a Native youth who’s family came from the
Reservation “Rez”(Grand Portage band of the Ojibwe),
Mr. Zimmerman has always felt the need and purpose
to help improve conditions and life for all Indian
people and the commitment to serve as a “unifying
liaison” between all races and cultures. After
completing military service and graduating from St.
John's University, he has worked in several areas of
youth development, Race relations and Human Rights
with special emphasis in American Indian cultural
recovery and advancement. Prior to his current
position, he provided family self-sufficiency and
support services on behalf of the American Indian
Chamber of Commerce in Minneapolis and was a lead
organizer and Executive Director of the Boys and
Girls Club of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe (the
first ever on a Minnesota reservation).
After 25 years as an educator, primarily for Indian
children or their teachers, Mr. Favorite in 1997
became the Director of Archives and History for the
White Earth band of Ojibwe, building upon prior work
as an Ojibwe linguist, storyteller and developer of
educational resources on Native American Treaties,
language, culture and values. Mr. Favorite is an
enrolled member of White Earth, but also counts his
descent from the Yankton Sioux “Dakota” Reservation.
He also spent two years as economic development
planner for the Grand Portage Reservation, and prior
to his current position, served as executive
director of the White Earth Land Recovery Project,
which seeks to reacquire properties lost or sold by
the White Earth Band from its original reservation
allotted under a treaty with the US Government.
Cynthia
A. (Lindquist) Mala, Cynthia A. Lindquist earned
Liberal Arts Bachelor’s degree in Indian Studies and
English at the University of North Dakota in 1981
and a Master’s degree in public administration
(Indian health systems emphasis) at the University
of South Dakota in 1988. As a Bush Foundation
Leadership Fellow, Ms. Lindquist completed a PhD in
educational leadership, University of North Dakota
in 2006. She began responsibilities as President of
Cankdeska Cikana (Little Hoop) Community College in
October 2003, which is the Spirit Lake Dakota Nation
and her home reservation.