 Sen. Ellen Anderson (DFL) |
Home: St. Paul Family: Married, Andy Dawkins, 2 children Occupation: Attorney, college instructor Education: BA, Carleton College; JD, University of Minnesota Special Legislative Concerns: Neighborhood revitalization, jobs and economic development, energy and environment, consumer protection, children's issues, violence prevention Committees: " Chair: Jobs, Energy and Community Development " Commerce, " Finance committee: Environment, Agriculture and Economic Development Budget Division, k-12 Education Budget division Elected: 1992, re-elected 1996, 2000, 2002 Term: 4th |
| Dr. James Bensen | Bemidji State University Graduate 1959 Career and Professional Achievements: President, Bemidji State University, President, The Dunwoody Institute, Professor and Dean, School of Industry and technology, UW-Stout. Active in over two dozen professional organizations and served as President of one international and two national organizations. Community Service: Bemidji Area Joint Economic Development Council, Board Member, Bemidji Area Chamber of Commerce, Bemidji Rotary Club, Founding member of Stout Technology Park. Outstanding Service to Bemidji State University: Member, BSU Alumni Board, Member, BSU Foundation. Personal Achievements/Awards: "Academy of Fellows," International Technology Education Association, "Outstanding Employer Award," United States Department of Defense, "Professional Leadership Award," American Vocational Association, "Award of Distinction for Research, Teaching, and Service," International Technology Education Association, "District Award of Merit," Silver Waters District, Boy Scouts of America, "The SHIP CITATION," Educational Exhibitors Association, National Award. Humanitarian Service: Founder and board member, FISH, and organization to serve people who were in desperate situations and responded to requests, Boy Scout Leader for 23 years, Organized blood bank drives, United Way, and a number of related humanitarian efforts. |
Rev. Bliss W. Browne |
Bliss is founder and President of Imagine Chicago, an innovative civic project founded in 1992 that has inspired a global movement on six continents (www.imaginechicago.org). She is an ordained Episcopal priest, and was formerly a corporate banking Vice President and Division Head at the First National Bank of Chicago where she worked from 1975-1991. Her civic leadership positions have included serving as Chairman of the Center for Neighborhood Technology and of the MidAmerica Leadership Foundation; Trustee of the Chicago Sunday Evening Club; and Advisory Board member of Public Allies, Archeworks, Chicago Children's Choir, Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions, the Illinois Fatherhood Initiative, and the Community Advisory boards of the Field Museum and the Chicago Historical Society. She also served on the Illinois Governor's Public-Private Child Care Council and the Presiding Bishop's Consultation on Reconciliation. She was the first female priest ever to preach at Westminster Abbey, in 1979, and has served in parish ministry in Chicago for 30 years. She was one of 24 members of the Saguaro Seminar on Civic Engagement in America, a two-year forum at the Harvard Kennedy School that recognized national innovators in developing social capital. She is a sought after keynote speaker, facilitator, consultant and trainer nationally and internationally. She holds degrees from Yale (B.A. 1971 in History), Harvard Divinity School (M.Div. 1974 in Theology), and Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern (M.M. 1978 in Finance). Awards include: Rockefeller Fellow 1972, Kellogg National Leadership Fellow 1988-91, two Eureka Community Awards 1995-96, the Chicago Mercedes Mentor Award 1998, and the Chicago Justice Pioneer Award 2003. She is married with three young adult children. Publications include "Cultivating Hope and Imagination" in Vimukh Shiksha and the Journal of Future Studies in 2001 and "Liberating Imagination about Aging," in Foresight in 2003. She is also author of two books: "Ten Years of Imagination in Action", a conceptual framework for imagination as a social movement and "Women Alive: A Legacy of Social Justice." She can be contacted at bliss@imaginechicago.org. |
 Jack Coffman |
Jack has covered politics and public affairs in Kansas, Iowa and Minnesota, recently retiring as politics and government writer for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. He wrote on energy policy as well as state government for the Minneapolis Tribune where he also helped design the Tribune's rural coverage and served as the paper's State Editor in charge on rural coverage. As a political and public affairs writer, Coffman won the Inland Daily Press award for investigative reporting for a series that revealed abuses of campaign finance that led to an overhaul of Minnesota's campaign finance laws. He won the Premack Award and several AP Page One awards for his coverage of Minnesota government. As a reporter for the Hutchinson News and the Topeka Daily Capitol in Kansas and at the Des Moines Tribune, Coffman gained wide experience with coverage of rural life. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. Jack and Geoge Anthan were recipients of the 2004 Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship Winners. He and Anthan recently completed "Sweeping out the Plains" as a part of that award. (note: links open in new window). |
 Robert Jones |
As Senior Vice President for System Administration. Dr. Robert J. Jones provides leadership for institutional strategic planning, improvement, and accountability for the University of Minnesota system. His responsibilities include the administrative oversight of the coordinate campuses and other system-wide administrative and academic issues, such as direction and coordination of strategic planning and analysis; budgeting; and institutional research and accountability reporting, including legislative requests and the University Plan, Performance, and Accountability Report; diversity, multiculturalism, equal opportunity; system community partnerships, international programs, and research and outreach programs. Dr. Jones has primary decision making responsibility, authority and accountability for the following units: Extension Service, University of Minnesota, Rochester, International Programs, Multicultural and Academic Affairs, Equal Opportunity & Affirmative Action, Business & Community Economic Development, the Grievance Office, Office of Technology, and System Research and Service Programs. Dr. Jones also is a professor Agronomy and Plant Genetics and an internationally recognized authority on corn physiology. His research focuses on stabilizing grain yield against environmental stresses such as heat and water. He has been a visiting professor in England, China, and Morocco and has been a featured speaker at noteworthy symposia in the United States, England, Mexico, Africa, Canada, and the Czech Republic. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Agronomy and the Crop Science Society of America and has published more than 100 scientific papers, manuscripts, and abstracts. Dr. Jones has been a strong leader for diversity initiatives at the University of Minnesota, in the United States, and in the world. He has twice sponsored a national symposium called Keeping Our Faculties: Addressing the Recruitment and Retention of Faculty of Color. And at the height of the contentious battle over apartheid, Dr. Jones worked with Archbishop Desmond Tutu for ten years to provide black South African students with opportunities to attend U.S. colleges and universities, including the University of Minnesota. Dr. Jones also served as an academic and scientific consultant for Archbishop Tutu's South African Education Program. Dr. Jones received a bachelor's degree in agronomy from Fort Valley State University in Georgia, a master's degree in crop physiology from the University of Georgia, and a doctorate from the University of Missouri in crop physiology. |
 Rep. Morrie Lanning (R) |
Home: Moorhead Occupation: Vice president for student affairs, dean of students Education: B.A., psychology and history-political science, Concordia College, Moorhead, Minn.; M.S., guidance and counseling, North Dakota State University, Fargo, N.D. Committees: Education Policy and Reform; Local Government (Vice Chair); Property and Local Tax Division; Regulated Industries; Taxes. Elected: 2002 |
| Nancy Larson |
Nancy is the Executive Director and lobbyist for the Minnesota Association of Small Cities. She worked in this position since 1988 and represent cities throughout Minnesota with populations of 5,000 or less. Currently the Minnesota Association of Small Cities has 368 member cities She is a board member of the University of Minnesota Morris Center for Small Towns and a member of the St. Cloud State University Mass Communications Department Distinguished Alumni Professional Advisory Board. She was a DFL endorsed candidate for Lt. Governor in 1994 and for State Auditor in 1998. |
 Rep. Paul Marquart (DFL) |
Home: Dilworth Family: Married spouse Colleen, 2 children Occupation: Educator/Teacher was the mayor of Dilworth for 11 years. Taught social studies at Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton School for 20 years. Education: BS, education-social studies, University of North Dakota; MS, education administration, Tri-College University Committees: Education Policy and Reform; Local Government; Property and Local Tax Division; Taxes. Elected: 2000 Term: 3rd |
 Laura McCallum |
Laura McCallum is the Capitol Bureau chief for Minnesota Public Radio, reporting on the Minnesota Legislature, state government, the governor and politics. McCallum joined MPR in 1993, and has been covering politics since 1998, the year Jesse Ventura was elected Minnesota governor. She has won numerous state, regional and national writing and reporting awards. Prior to MPR, McCallum worked for two public radio stations in North Dakota, and also did television and print reporting. McCallum is president of the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors, a national journalism organization dedicated to improving statehouse coverage around the country. She is the past president of the Northwest Broadcast News Association, a regional news organization representing six states. McCallum, a native of Bismarck, North Dakota, graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of North Dakota. |
 Dr. Samuel Schuman |
Dr. Samuel Schuman is the Chancellor of the University of Minnesota, Morris. From 1995 to 1998, he served UMM as Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Dean. He received his B.A. from Grinnell College (Iowa), his M.A. from San Francisco State University and Ph.D. from Northwestern University. From 1970 to 1977 Dr. Schuman was a member of the English Faculty at Cornell College, Mount Vernon, Iowa. From 1977 to 1981 he was Associate Professor of English and Director of the Honors Program, University of Maine. He served as Vice President for Academic Affairs at Guilford College, Greensboro, North Carolina, between 1981-1991, and from 1991 to 1995 was Chancellor and Professor of Literature at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. Dr. Schuman is the author of four books and over 40 articles on Renaissance British Drama and modern American literature. His books include: Cyril Tourneur, John Webster: A Reference Guide, Vladimir Nabokov, and The Theatre of Fine Devices: The Visual Drama of John Webster. He is also the author of two handbooks published by the National Collegiate Honors Council, "Honors Programs in Smaller Colleges" now in its second edition, and "Beginning in Honors," currently in its third printing. He has served as President of both the Vladimir Nabokov Society and of the National Collegiate Honors Council. Dr. Schuman is currently a member of several community boards and organizations, including the Board of Directors of Minnesota Public Radio, the Stevens County Red Cross, and others. |
 Sen. Dave Senjem (R) |
Home: Rochester Family: Married, Marlys 2 children Occupation: Environmental affairs Education: BA, Luther College Special Legislative Concerns: Taxes, education, local government, agriculture, commerce Committees: " Capital Investment " Finance committee: State Government Budget Division, Transportation Budget Division " Jobs, Energy and Community Development, State and Local Government Operations, Transportation Elected: 2002 Term: 1st |
| Michael Skoler |
Michael Skoler, an award-winning former editor and correspondent for National Public Radio, has been named managing director of news for Minnesota Public Radio®. Skoler will lead Minnesota Public Radio's interactive journalism initiative, which aims to strengthen news coverage by drawing on audience expertise. He will also serve as project director for the second Public Radio Collaboration, a coalition of stations, producers and networks across the country that share programs and coordinate their schedules to create special coverage on critical national issues. Skoler worked for 15 years as a reporter in radio, television and print before moving into management five years ago. He joined NPR in 1987 and spent a decade there as an editor, science correspondent and foreign correspondent. Skoler has been honored with an Alfred I. Dupont-Columbia University Silver Baton and a Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Award for his reporting in Africa, a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard and numerous awards for his science reporting. As a science correspondent, he was known for his often funny and irreverent storytelling. After leaving NPR in 1997, Skoler earned an MBA as a Batten Media Fellow at the University of Virginia. He then joined the consulting firm McKinsey and Company in Seattle and Boston, working with senior executives of media, education and technology companies to set strategy, create online businesses and turn around money-losing units. |
 Carol Wilcox |
Mayor, City of Morris. Occupations (past and present): retired teacher of 34 years. Taught in Moorhead, Hancock and Morris.Community involvement: Morris City Council 18-1/2 years; Morris mayor the past 6-1/2 years; served on the HRA board, Salvation Army board, Hospice Advisory Committee, on board of directors of Morris Chamber of Commerce, member of Faith Lutheran Church. |