(cheerful music) (music continues) (music continues) - Welcome to "Almanac North", I'm Brett Scott.

On tonight's show, we dive into what community leadership means, speak with residents who set the example of how to be leaders, and welcome some Bush Fellowship Award winners that are making their trails as, marking their trails rather as leaders of the future.

But first, we look at some headlines this evening.

Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation awarded over $490,000 in culture and tourism grants to 27 projects across its 13,000 square mile service area.

These grants support arts, culture, history, tourism, and recreational activities, enhancing the region's quality of life and attracting visitors.

The annual grant program typically invests around $600,000 in the region.

The IRRR Commissioner praised the strong community commitment to improving local amenities.

Projects funded include various upgrades to parks, sports facilities and community centers.

Notable grants include $16,000 to Adaptive Wilderness Within Reach in Ely for accessible kayaking equipment, $25,000 to the city of Bovey for a new hockey rink, and $30,000 to the Grand Portage Reservation Tribal Council for a playground.

Other recipients include the city of Hibbing, which received $22,000 for a portable stage trailer, and the Knife River Heritage and Cultural Center, which was granted $30,000 for a shelter over a commercial fishing exhibit.

The next grant application cycle runs from July 1 to October 1, 2024.

Eligible entities include cities, townships, nonprofits, tribal governments, and other governmental bodies within the IRRR service area.

Well, that is quite a variety of projects and organizations that they're helping out.

Moving along this evening, we are joined today by Interim Chancellor at the University of Minnesota Duluth, David McMillan.

David, welcome to "Almanac North".

- Well, thank you.

- Thank you for being here.

- Pleasure to be here.

- Yes.

So could you please introduce yourself a little bit and describe your background in education and leadership as it pertains to becoming interim chancellor at UMD?

- Yeah, very good.

So, I'm a UMD alum, showed up here long, long ago in 1979 and finished my degrees here, and then off to do a few other things, and came back and enjoyed a three decade career with Minnesota Power and ALLETE in a variety of roles, but most of that time in executive leadership roles.

And I also spent two full terms as a member of the University's Board of Regents representing the 8th Congressional District and got to know UMD very well, not only as a student, but as a member of the university's governing board.

And then in 2022, they had a search that didn't succeed to find a successor to Chancellor Lynn Black.

And I was asked if I'd be interested in stepping into a transitional leadership role and I took the opportunity.

And I've been richly blessed to be back at my alma mater in this role.

- It's nice to be back as a Bulldog.

So what do you perceive as maybe some of the biggest challenges you've faced over these past two years as interim chancellor?

- That's a good question.

And I think the easiest and most significant challenge that, not the easiest to solve, but the easiest to answer is we've got to stabilize enrollment.

Really undergraduate enrollment, it's been on about a six year decline.

Of course, a global pandemic didn't help that at all.

But we're doing everything we can with the support of our system to find a, what I'll call a enrollment equilibrium, if you will.

I don't know exactly what that is, but we gotta stop losing students.

And that's both recruiting new students here, 17 year olds who want to come here, and making sure that once we recruit them here, they stay and they succeed.

So it's a retention element of that too.

We're doing very well on the retention side of it.

And there's some signs that we're starting to get some traction around improved recruitment as well.

But it's an oversupplied market.

It's a lot of regionals in tough shape.

And we're actually in okay shape, but we've really gotta keep our eye on that enrollment ball.

That's number one.

- It's important to watch.

And how do you envision strengthening UMD's future and the relationship with community stakeholders here in the Twin Ports?

- Yeah, another good question.

And I have spent a good chunk of the last two years making sure that my number one priority is that the business, the civic, the political leaders around us, the neighborhoods around us know who we are.

Everybody knows UMD's there, but we need to demonstrate that engagement.

And people engage with this campus in so many ways, sometimes at AMSOIL Arena, sometimes at Malosky Stadium, sometimes as students themselves, sometimes as employers who need some research help with an issue, need employees.

You know, we create a pretty good swath of the workforce for the area.

And all those things are ways that I try to make sure community and business leaders can find me when they need me and my senior team and our staff and faculty.

- Networking as well, that's important.

Now, Dr. Charles Nies will be coming in on July the 1st, correct?

- That's correct.

- How do you plan to use your leadership style in training and transitioning him to take over?

- Well, he's a more experienced higher education leader than I ever have been or ever would become, so I don't think I'll do much training.

But I will certainly support him in this transition.

And for the five weeks, five or six weeks following July 1, that will be my number one job, is to support him not only in transitioning into the campus, but even more importantly into this community that I had the good fortune, as I arrived to already have been part of with that long career with ALLETE and Minnesota Power.

So I will be working on that, making sure he gets to meet the leaders around town, around the region, around the system, the University of Minnesota system that he needs to meet.

And then I will also spend quite a bit of time making sure that he understands the issues, opportunities, challenges, and the things that we've been working on for the past two years.

- Definitely.

So my final question for you, you had plans two years ago, as we were talking off air, you and your wife kind of were making some plans.

You chose to take this position and become more of a leader throughout the community.

Why is it so important for you to have come back?

- Well, part of it is just the emotional tug that your alma mater has.

Part of it is, having been a Duluthian for the last 35 years, I have a very good sense of just how important UMD is to this community and this region, so anything I could do to help.

But part of it's also having a chance to lead a mission driven organization.

And if you think about higher education, especially a research university like UMD and the system to which we belong, we create and share knowledge.

And there's nothing that I've found in my long career in leadership that's been anywhere near as inspiring as watching that process unfold, watching students grow and learn while learning from faculty and the staff that connect the two, so.

- Well, Dean McMillan, we appreciate your time tonight and wish you the best in your future.

- Wow, thank you.

Thanks for having me.

- Yes.

(cheerful music) (music continues) (music continues) Well, up next here on "Almanac North", I am joined by Moira Villiard and Michelle Goose, the Duluth winners of the Bush Foundation Bush Fellowships.

Moira and Michelle, thank you both for being here this evening.

So explain a little bit about Bush Fellows and how you two were able to get involved with this.

We'll start with you, Michelle.

- Okay.

Well, the Bush Foundation awards about 24 recipients each year a fellowship to work on their leadership development.

So it's not necessarily project specific, but more like you are the project and you come up with a plan to really develop yourself as a leader and to sustain yourself in a leadership role.

I knew some people who have received the fellowship before, so when I started thinking about applying, I reached out to them and kind of got a little bit more information on the fellowship, and it just happened to work out for me this year.

- Sure.

And Moira, you were saying it's difficult because you're used to applying for things for projects.

You're applying for this for yourself, right?

- Yeah, no, I think that's a hiccup a lot of people have over the years.

This is actually my third or fourth time applying for the Bush Fellowship, and in our cohort there's a lot of people who are third, fourth, fifth time applicants.

So I think early on I was maybe focused more still on like, the project and how I'm gonna help the community with the funding and things like that.

And I'd gotten some feedback last year about really like, thinking more about the self-development piece.

And here I am, so.

- Wonderful.

And you have a large background in the arts and culture in the Twin Ports here.

Michelle, you have a background in education and language, you were mentioning.

How do you hope to use this to further yourself and also help out throughout the community?

- Yeah, well, big part of my plan this year is taking sabbatical.

So I'll be taking a break from teaching so that I can further my education a bit and then also do some leadership training, some workshops, and then also some travel to connect with other indigenous language groups.

- Sure.

And Moira?

- Mine's kind of a hybrid plan.

So I'll be going for my master's degree in human rights and then I'll be doing some world traveling to connect with different galleries and projects.

And then I'll be visiting the Shingwauk Residential School where my great-great-grandfather went in Canada, and kind of just learning about family history and stuff like that, so.

- Very interesting.

Could both of you maybe describe a specific project or maybe an initiative that you hope to pursue with this opportunity?

- Specific project?

Well, again, like you mentioned, it's not necessarily project based, but you can invest in yourself to build the skills that you might need to complete a project.

So one of my goals for my sabbatical is to draft an Ojibwe language textbook.

So that's something I'll be working on is kind of developing my skills as a writer and then further developing my skills as an educator as well.

- And Moira, what's a project that you hope to take from this opportunity?

- Yeah, I think there's a tour company called MEJDI that I used last year to go on a trip to Israel and Palestine.

And they curate like these global opportunities to do like ethical tourism.

So I'm working with them to kind of craft like a east coast tour to visit some of the spaces that have like activist exhibits and arts experiences that I can network with.

So I'm really excited for that.

- Wonderful.

So tonight's episode, we're all about leadership.

What does it mean to you to be a leader throughout your community?

- I guess my definition of leadership is just using the gifts that you're given.

So like Moira is a very talented artist and she uses that to uplift people in the community.

And I'm an educator, so I try to use those skills that I have to uplift people in the community and just contributing in whatever way I can.

- Moira, what does it mean to you to be a leader throughout the community?

- That plus, I would say, (all chuckling) I always think of it as like, leaving things better than they were left for you.

So just leaving the world better with any actions that you're taking.

I think that's a big part of leadership.

- Michelle, how would you describe the leadership, maybe the community of leadership throughout the Duluth region?

- Hmm, throughout the Duluth region, I would say it's very diverse.

And I think that we have a strong indigenous base in Duluth.

We have like the, what is it called?

The Indigenous Committee here in Duluth.

So I think there's a very diverse leadership community here in Duluth.

- Sure, and Moira?

- Also would agree.

I think we have like a rockstar, you know, lists of indigenous leaders in our region, and I'm kind of hoping that everybody applies for the Bush Fellowship or reaches out to us.

And not to throw you on the spot, but I love helping people with grants and stuff, so I'd love to see more people from Duluth especially apply to this opportunity, 'cause I think we're the only two Duluth folks this year.

And we're not terribly well represented in a lot of, you know, big opportunities like this.

So it'd be cool to see more people with us.

- And helping each other out, as you mentioned with grant writing and getting going, that's great.

Thank you both for being with us this evening.

We appreciate it.

- Thanks for having us.

- Thank you.

(upbeat music) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) - Now I am joined at the desk by CEO of the Amherst H Wilder Foundation, Armando Camacho.

Armando, thank you for being with us.

- Glad to be here.

- I appreciate it.

Could you just introduce yourself a little bit and explain your role with the foundation?

- Sure.

Well, Armando Camacho as already was stated.

And I'm the CEO of the Amherst H Wilder Foundation, which is a social service organization provider in St. Paul, but we do work across the state of Minnesota.

And I've been there for four years.

- And you just mentioned, we were talking a little bit off air, there are two projects with ties right here to the northland.

Explain those a little bit in depth.

- Yeah, so we're very unique for a social service provider 'cause we have a research division, Wilder Research.

And within that research division we have programs that really impact the state.

The most recent one has been the Minnesota Homeless Study, which is done every three years.

We were in hiatus during the pandemic.

But it's the only in-depth study of homelessness, of individuals that are unsheltered in the state of Minnesota.

So it impacts the north region here in the Duluth area for sure.

And that study, the data's coming out, but we had over 4,000 individuals interviewed across the whole state of Minnesota with hundreds of volunteers that did over 100 questions, really asking about the life and in-depth details of individuals that are unsheltered.

And that research is coming out.

And that really drives policies across the state, both at the state level and also local levels as that data is digested so we can really better understand.

Another area that is really statewide is Minnesota Compass.

It's one of the state's best kept secrets.

mncompass.org is a division of Wilder Research that is a social indicators project that really looks at all the demographic data and financial data, the whole state.

So you can actually go on mncompass.org and look up your neighborhood, look up demographic data of education, age, economic strength of individuals, companies within that division, area of the community.

And it's just a really wealth of resource that companies and politicians and businesses use to really have a better understanding of what's happening in the community.

So while we're locally based in St. Paul, we do work across the state of Minnesota.

Minnesota Homeless Study and also Minnesota Compass are two areas that we really have an impact across the state.

- What does it mean for you to be able to do these studies, these projects and help guide change throughout the state of Minnesota?

- Yeah, well, there's a saying that, "In God we Trust, all others bring your data."

And both of these studies provide critical data to the whole state of Minnesota on how we're doing, again, with people who are unsheltered, especially after the pandemic.

What does that look like for us as a state?

And Minnesota Compass really dives into the demographics of the whole state, and it takes data from all parts of the country, data sources, should I say, and really brings it all together, mn.org, minnesotacompass.org, and really brings it all together so people can really have access to that data.

Which is free.

But we also get support from corporations and foundations so we can have the staff, the researchers, to really create that compository of all that data at minnesotacompass.org.

- Sure.

Now, as a leader in human services, what role does your foundation, what does it play in advocating for social justice and change throughout the community?

- Yeah.

Well, we're in the heart of our social justice epicenter right on University Avenue and Lexington Avenue in St. Paul.

But we have over a 100 year history of really advocating for the sick, the homeless, the people that really need a hand up, not a handout, but a hand up.

So we really spend a lot of time with our advocacy team.

And also all our programs are really designed to empower families through our whole family approach.

We have over 450 employees.

Over 60% are BIPOC employees that represent the community.

So we really are at the heart of the community and believe that community is the answer.

And we have the saying, "Community's the answer, what's the question?"

So at the end of the day, it's really about empowering the community.

And that's what I think leadership is also about is empowering those that we serve.

And we believe that at Wilder.

- Right, for someone watching this evening, how could they get involved with the Wilder Foundation?

If they're looking to become more of a leader in the community.

- Yeah, well, every three years we need volunteers for the Minnesota Homeless Study.

So up here in the Duluth area, we're always looking for volunteers.

So wilder.org is our website where you can have access to Wilder Research, also mncompass.org, you can look at that information as well and really tap into resources.

As a nonprofit, we also need financial support to do the work that we do.

And that's at wilder.org/donate.

- On a personal note, how did you get started in your career as a leader?

Throughout the state, really.

- Yeah, well, I'm originally from Puerto Rico, so I came here when I was six, so I relied heavily on social services and the education system.

So I've been very blessed to be where I am as a CEO of a large nonprofit right now.

And I'm educator by training.

So again, a lot of people have invested in me, social services, the county services, to get me where I'm at.

And I strongly believe that we also have to pay it forward and help others that need a hand up, not a handout, but a hand up.

And I've been blessed for that.

- Armando, thank you so much for being with us here on "Almanac North".

We appreciate it.

- Thank you.

(upbeat music) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) Our next guests here on "Almanac North" this evening are from the Northspan Group, Zach Filipovich and also Karl Schuettler.

Karl, Zach, thank you both for being here this evening, we appreciate it.

- Absolutely, thank you so much.

- Thanks for having us.

- Karl, I'm gonna start with you.

So explain the Northspan group, and also how you guys foster some leadership opportunities throughout the Twin Ports region.

- Sure, so Northspan is a community and economic development focused consulting firm, which is really a unique little space that we're in.

And we spend a lot of our time really thinking broadly about how we support community members and encourage leadership maybe from places where it doesn't come naturally.

We spent a lot of time working with entrepreneurs, especially some who are underrepresented, may not have a lot of background in, you know, business or how to get things done.

But we, you know, help connect them to resources and empower them.

We also do a lot of strategic planning work with clients who, you know, as we go through these processes with organizations, they try to figure out how to do their work.

You know, you find that certain leaders will step up and take charge of certain initiatives, even if that's not in their title.

You know, they're finding ways to really drive those efforts and that's what we like to see.

'Cause it really does take a community like that to get this work done.

- Right, it can be daunting to start up a new adventure in your life.

So Zach, can you discuss a little bit about collaborations with Northspan?

- Oh, absolutely.

And we have so many, 'cause I think we like to take the approach of leading with folks and other organizations like the Entrepreneur Fund or the Northland Foundation or Itasca Economic Development Corporation.

And these regional approaches working together in collaboration I think are really good examples of why Northspan is here and what we do, and how we're able to bring value to those business owners, those communities that we are here to serve, and help engage and elevate with them.

- Karl, what are some of the most common things that you help your clients with?

- Yeah, so often we're working with organizations that need a new strategic plan.

They need a framework for how to think about themselves.

'Cause it's very easy for an organization, especially as you're coming out of some of these challenges of COVID, some of the huge changes we've seen in the world over the past few years now.

How do you orient yourself, make sure you're focused on your mission, doing the work that you are meant to do?

So it's a lot of work in that area.

And also just supporting some of these partnerships that Zach was talking about also, like we do a lot of the work maybe behind the scenes to make sure that things keep moving, stay on track.

Even though you don't see some of these efforts, you know, in the news that often, it's that work that you need to do to keep everyone on the same page and moving together across all of northern Minnesota.

- Sure, you're the background guys, right?

Zach, could you share a case where innovative leadership has maybe led to a significant positive impact in the community?

- Yeah, you know, I think one of the things that Northspan has been able to take advantage of and leverage for our community has been the CRP or Capital Readiness Program through the MBDA and the Department of Commerce.

And so we are one of 43 organizations across the country that have received this resource to help support businesses and those partnerships that we've been talking about.

And we have seen businesses take advantage of that with business valuations and other support or cohort models that are able to help business owners take an idea and get it on paper and start their business through some of those capacity building models that we are able to provide thanks to that success story that Northspan has been able to take advantage of.

- Sure.

How would you, Karl, explain the leadership community throughout Duluth?

And has it grown throughout the years?

- It's a yes, I think you're seeing a lot of new people stepping up to new roles.

It's also just been a lot of change.

I think we've seen some real generational shifts in, you know, who's involved in a lot of these roles.

And it's kind of exciting to see some of this fresh blood.

And, you know, I've also had the opportunity to learn from a lot of people who have had a lot of experience.

So it's really a, I think we're at a unique moment.

We're just really seeing a lot of new energy coming in.

- Zach, are we seeing a younger, energetic generation coming forward?

- Oh, I think so.

I think there's a lot of energy, there's a lot of enthusiasm for our region to help make sure that our region is able to grow and continue to prosper and build on that prosperity that previous generations have built up.

And so Northspan is very pleased and proud to be a part of it and helping those new generations come forward and grow our economy.

- Karl, how could someone get involved with Northspan?

- Yeah, so a couple of ways that we are looking for people to be involved.

First, we're a nonprofit so we have a board of directors, and we do actually have an open application for that.

So anytime we have openings, we'll be putting that out there and we'd love to have new people come in.

If you are an entrepreneur or business owner or want to get involved, we have those resources for you through our DAWN program, which is Driving Access to Wealth and Networks.

So feel free to reach out, and we're happy to get you connected with all the resources you might need.

- Well, Karl, Zach, thank you both for being here.

We appreciate it.

- Thank you so much.

- Thank you.

(cheerful music) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) - Well, that was quite an inspirational show tonight.

Now let's look ahead and see what you might be up to this weekend.

Throughout the weekend, the Judy Garland Festival.

it's happening in Grand Rapids.

Focused around the Judy Garland Museum, each day is packed with guided tours, classic films, games, events and prizes.

Saturday and Sunday start at 8:30 AM.

Meanwhile, the Lyric Center for the Arts in Virginia is hosting the Open Water Exhibit this Saturday from 11:00 until 3:00.

See work from over a dozen local artists in one spot.

And this Sunday at 5:00 in the evening, the Duluth Harbor Monsters are hosting the Kansas City Goats at the Deck Arena.

Be there and witness history at the Harbor Monsters' first ever regular season home game.

And of course, Grandma's Marathon is this weekend, so expect higher than normal traffic and larger crowds in and around Duluth this weekend.

Well, that'll do it for this week's show.

Make sure you get out and enjoy the outdoors this weekend.

For everyone here at "Almanac North", I'm Brett Scott.

Thank you for joining us and good night.

(upbeat music) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (upbeat jingle)