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Meet the 2020 Health POWER Cohort

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THE ALLIANCE

Ricardo Perez (he/him/his)
Ricardo Perez joined the Alliance staff in July 2019. Ricardo was born and raised in Mexico and moved to the United States in 2004. Ricardo has more than 10 years of experience working in the non-profit sector alongside community on issues that disproportionately impact immigrants and people of color. Ricardo is an alumni of CURA’s Neighborhood Now program and the Wilder Foundation Community Equity Pipeline cohort, he is currently a fellow of the 2019-2020 Nexus Community Partners Board and Commissions Leadership Institute. Ricardo loves his family, art and the resiliency and creativity of humanity.

Joo Hee Pomplun (she/her/hers)
Joo Hee Pomplun joined the Alliance staff in May 2017 and became the executive director in 2019. Joo Hee was formerly the director of policy and advocacy at Asian Economic Development Association (AEDA) where she worked with Asian communities along transit corridors on entrepreneurship, financial capabilities, social lending, and governmental policies and practices. Joo Hee also founded the Health Equity Working Committee, served as executive director for the Minnesota Asian/American Health Coalition, and was a member of the People’s Movement Center. Joo Hee has a bachelor’s degree in women’s studies, a master’s degree in public health, and is a certified massage therapist. Her strengths and interests are in the intersection of community development, racial equity, and spiritual health.

AMERICAN LUNG ASSOCIATION IN MN

Pat McKone (she/her/hers)
Pat McKone, Senior Director – Health Promotion and Policy – American Lung Association, has worked with lung health programming for over forty years. Ms. McKone’s work has included tobacco treatment programs, limiting youth access to tobacco, public and school based education, raising awareness of the impact of tobacco in those with mental illness and/or substance abuse disorders, as well as advocacy around limiting exposure to second hand smoke, smoke free housing, point of sale, and e cigarettes. Most recently, Pat led efforts in Duluth, MN to pass a local policy limiting access to menthol and other flavored tobacco products to adult-only tobacco stores. Ms. McKone was the 2017 recipient of the American Lung Association’s Distinguished Professional Service Award and in 2018 was recognized as part of the Blue Cross Trailblazer award.

Reba Mathern-Jacobson (she/her/hers)
Reba Mathern-Jacobson, MSW, leads American Lung Association’s initiatives in MN and ND to implement policy, systems and environmental changes to support tobacco treatment and tobacco-free environments within mental health and substance use disorder settings. She facilitates the Lung Mind Alliance (formerly the Leadership Academy Collaborative) in which statewide partners implement strategies to reduce the disparities and impact commercial tobacco use has on people with mental illness and/or substance use disorders. She has over 25 years as a social worker, living with families experiencing homeless, working with people experiencing mental illness/substance use disorders, doing program development and policy. Reba also volunteers with her local food cooperative and coordinates an intergenerational, multicultural community garden.

APPETITE FOR CHANGE

Taronda Richardson (she/her/hers)
Taronda served as the Branch Director of the Harold Mezile Youth & Teen Enrichment Center North Community YMCA. Taronda led the charge to build and implement the Cargill Healthy Living Teaching Kitchen offering youth participants richer programs, and improved family engagement in healthy eating and physical activity.
For 10 years, Taronda served as the Program & Operations Director at Cookie Cart where she led the successful development and growth spurt of Cookie Cart’s employment programing for over 1000 teenagers providing transformational work, life and leadership skills to teens through experiential paid training in an urban nonprofit bakery and classroom. She is a skilled baker with a passion for all made from scratch. Taronda previously worked with Appetite For Change where she developed their 2016 summer employment program. The culmination of the work was the viral hit video Grow Foods.

ASSOCIATION OF NONSMOKERS-MINNESOTA (ANSR)

Tiffany Pao Yang (she/her/hers)
Tiffany is a Youth and Community Outreach Specialist at ANSR. In this position, Tiffany coordinates youth engagement initiatives and various components of local policy campaigns such as strategic communication with local elected officials and staff, community organizing and earned media. Tiffany studied Life Sciences Communication, Gender and Women’s Studies, and Global Health at UW-Madison. She continued her education at the University of Minnesota, School of Public Health where she studied Maternal and Child Health and received her Master of Public Health. Outside of ANSR, you can find Tiffany volunteering for the Hmong Breastfeeding Project, hanging out with her family, and baking.

Eugene M. (Gene) Nichols (he/him/his)
Gene Nichols brings with him more than 35 years of health care experience as a Sales Operations Manager for the Health Care Division of 3M Corporation, Division Sales Trainer for J&J Ortho Pharmaceutical Division. He is a retired 3M’er. Gene serves as Board Chair at Open Cities Health Clinic, a Federally Qualified Health Center in St. Paul, and at Rainbow Research in Minneapolis. Gene serves as, a member of the Ramsey County Community Health Advisory Committee, the Ramsey County Healthy Family Initiative Advisory Commission, and Chair of the Minnesota American Heart Association Minnesota State Advocacy Committee. Gene also sits on the Minnesota Department of Health Maternal and Child Advisory committee as an ex-officio member. Gene is a Human Right Commissioner for the City of Shoreview, Minnesota, where he resides.

COMUNIDADES LATINAS UNIDAS EN SERVICIO (CLUES)

Abigail Hindson (she/her/hers)
Abigail Hindson graduated from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin in 2016 with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and Spanish. Over the past few years she has worked on small farms and community gardens from Ecuador and Argentina to Norway and Cambodia, and more recently right here in Minnesota. Her two passions in life are community and food and she is excited to bring her energy to the Health POWER initiative at CLUES. She is thrilled to join the Health POWER initiative at CLUES as the Community Garden & Engagement Coordinator because she believes that growing food together is a vital way to grow power in community. Abigail is passionate about building an equitable food system in Minnesota that includes the voices and needs of every community; she is excited to be part of a project driven by the needs, input and leadership of the Latinx community in St. Paul and the whole Twin Cities metro area. In her spare time she enjoys reading, baking and cooking with friends, doing yoga, playing Irish fiddle music, and spending time outside however she can—bicycling, running, hiking and gardening!

Carla Kohler (she/her/hers)
Carla Kohler, B.A., has served the Latino community to achieve health equity for over five years. As the Associate Director of Community Health & Wealth Initiatives, Carla directs all program activities scheduled and organized by CLUES’ Urban and Rural Supervisors, and oversees all health promotion and prevention activities of CLUES’ Community Health Services. She also coordinates data entry, analysis, and reports, collaborates with external evaluators, contributes to fundraising opportunities, and fosters new partnerships to advance healthy equity for the Latino community in Minnesota. Carla graduated from Hamline University in 2010 with a Bachelor’s degree in Legal Studies and Political Science and currently participates in the Minnesota Department of Health’s Health Equity Leadership Network (HELN). Carla is a Leadership in Advocacy Fellow to Advance Minnesota’s Parity for Priority Populations (LAAMPP), a Roy Wilkins Public Policy Fellow, and was awarded the 2014 Visionary Leader Award by the Minnesota Community Health Worker Alliance. Carla is motivated to serve her community because her family once relied on the resources of social services agencies like CLUES after immigrating to the U.S. in 1994. Her passion lies in advocating for the health equity of Latinos in Minnesota and reducing the disparities that disproportionately impact the community. Carla is also encouraged by her colleagues’ commitment, passion, and dedication in their work to improve the lives of the Latino community to achieve their American dream.

FAMILYWISE

Emily Clary (she/her/hers)
Emily Clary is the Director of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Collaborative Partnerships at MCCC, and is responsible for helping develop and coordinate the ACE Interface training and Self-Healing Communities partnership with the Children’s Mental Health and Family Services Collaboratives across the state. Emily has been working at MCCC since July 2017 and holds a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota and a Bachelor’s of Arts Degree in Sociology from Beloit College. From 2009-2015, Emily developed programming for incarcerated men at the Dakota County Sheriff’s Office. She has been trained in Motivational Interviewing, Person Centered Thinking, Bridges Out of Poverty, MAVA Volunteer Leadership, is certified to administer the Level of Services/Case Management Inventory tool, and has an Offender Workforce Development Specialist (OWDS) certification.

Linsey McMurrin (she/her/hers)
Linsey McMurrin, a citizen of the Leech Lake Nation of Ojibwe, is Director of Prevention Initiatives and Tribal Projects. Linsey trains presenters across the state around impacts of adversity and trauma, providing outreach, ongoing support, and coaching to presenters and community networks. She promotes truth-seeking, healing, and change through increasing understanding around Historical Trauma, Epigenetics, and Resiliency, while building relationships within and among communities. Linsey advocates for equity and social justice through community driven work, believing that the continuing development of cultural, social, and emotional competencies is integral to our well-being and ongoing success – as individuals, families, and communities.

THE FOOD GROUP

Fun Fun Cheng (she/her/hers)
Fun Fun has a strong background in food access and social justice, including experience as a racial justice facilitator for YWCA’s It’s Time to Talk Forums on Race, a fundraiser and grantmaker for Headwaters Foundation for Justice, and a fundraiser with Eat for Equity. Her interest in seeing diversity reflected in food access leadership led her to run for election and win a seat on the board of Mississippi Market Co-op. Fun Fun has a B.A. in English from Carleton College, a M.A. in Library & Information Science from the University of Iowa, and a Master of Public Affairs from the Humphrey School.

Sophia Lenarz-Coy (she/her/hers)
Sophia Lenarz-Coy, Executive Director of The Food Group, has worked in hunger relief her entire career, having re-joined The Food Group as director of programs and operations in 2018. In that role, she embedded equity and systems change, created new strategies for community engagement, and clarified long-term organizational outcomes. Prior to that, she served as associate director at Hunger Solutions Minnesota, where she worked on federal and state public policy and expanded cross-sector partnerships with healthcare, policy makers, and farmers markets. She also served as a leader for The Food Group’s programs team from 2008 to 2015. She managed Fare for All and food shelf partnerships and expanded culturally specific food offerings. She earned a bachelor’s degree at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.

HMONG AMERICAN FARMERS ASSOCIATION

Janssen Hang (he/him/his)
Janssen Hang is the Senior Organizer and Co-Founder of the Hmong American Farmers Association. Janssen grew up growing, harvesting and selling vegetables for the local food economy and currently runs his family-owned value-added business making spring rolls and egg rolls at the downtown Saint Paul Farmers Market. Janssen has over 20 years of experience in agriculture, 12 years in small business management, and 7 years as a licensed-real estate agent. Janssen is also one among just a few certified Hmong Mekongs (cultural broker). Janssen likes to spend his free time with his wife and three sons in the outdoors.

LEECH LAKE BAND OF OJIBWE

Brian Brunelle (he/him/his)
Brian Brunelle is currently the Health Director for the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. He was raised in Cass Lake, MN on the Leech Lake Reservation in Northern Minnesota attending and graduating from Cass Lake High School. Brian attended Bemidji State University, earning a Bachelor of Science Degree in Community Health. Prior to his Health Director position, Brian served as Director of Administration for the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe for 10 years. Brian also served as the Fitness Director for the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe for 16 years, establishing a unique Diabetes Fitness Program specific to the control and prevention of Diabetes in American Indian Communities. Brian has been active in the Cass Lake, MN community serving on the Cass Lake-Bena School Board of Education for 14 years. He is an alumni of the first Blandin Indian Community Leadership Program and was proud to serve on the Governor’s Council of Physical Fitness and Sports and the American Diabetes Association Board of Directors. Brian was also awarded the Community Hero Award for his community service by the Cass Lake Elementary Student Council. Physical Activity and exercise are critical to Brian’s personal life. He truly believes that caring for one’s own personal life will lead to a happier and healthier life.

Birdie Lyons (we/us/everybody)
Birdie Lyons, LPN/Family Spirit Program Manager, is an enrolled member and an employee of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe (LLBO) Health Services Division- Nursing Department, where she has devoted 90 percent of her nursing career for the last thirty-seven years. She has extensive experience in her cultural and traditional practices which she uses in her daily activities of her employment and personal life. Her recent activities include introduction of an evidence based Home Visiting Program called Family Spirit which was created by the Johns Hopkins University American Indian Health Department, exclusive to Native Americans. The curriculum the LLBO-Health Services Division Family Spirit program utilizes, educates the LLBO Territory community members on life skills, which also has the Ojibwe cultural, traditional, and language teachings as a large part of the curriculum she and her staff have instilled into the lesson plans. Birdie is a mother of six and grandmother to many. She enjoys being with her sons and husband, traveling, sewing, music, reading in her spare time, and visiting with her siblings.

LINCOLN PARK CHILDREN AND FAMILIES COLLABORATIVE

Jodi Broadwell (she/her/hers)
Jodi, Executive Director of Lincoln Park Children and Families Collaborative, lives, works, and plays in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Duluth. Jodi has a Master of Arts degree, is a Certified Prevention Professional, and has a Certification in Nonprofit Management. Jodi was named Emerging Leader in 2012 by the YWCA-Duluth, an Unsung Hero by Minnesota Communities Caring for Children in 2014, and a 20 under 40 awardee by the Duluth News Tribune in 2018. Jodi is an Alumni of the Minnesota Reading Corps, Organizing Apprenticeship Project’s Racial Justice Training, and the Leadership Institute to Advance Minnesota’s Parity for Priority Populations. Jodi sits on several boards and committees including: Duluth-Superior GLBTQAI2S+ Pride Committee, Ecolibrium3, Duluth Community Garden Program Land Stewardship, Duluth Public Arts Commission, and Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial, Inc.

Nik Allen (she/her/hers)
Nik has been a social change maker for 15 years, and is thrilled to join Health POWER at Lincoln Park Children and Families Collaborative. Nik has studied at the College of St. Scholastica and Oxford University, as well as in community driven programs at Minnesota Indian Women’s Sexual Assault Coalition, Tri-College, and Men as Peacemakers. Nik is the former Executive Director of Volunteers in Education (VinE), Training and Resource Director at Mending the Sacred Hoop and the Sacred Hoop Coalition, and Northern Organizer at MN350. Over the years, she has consulted for and partnered with myriad non-profits; acheiving 501c3 status, developing boards and funds, creating new programs and curricula, collaborating on legislation and policy. Nik believes meaningful community connection is the path to equity and safety. Outside of this work, Nik tends to her family farm and the Gertrude Elizabeth Allen Memorial Nature Preserve in the northwoods.

LOWER SIOUX INDIAN COMMUNITY IN THE STATE OF MINNESOTA, A FEDERALLY RECOGNIZED INDIAN TRIBE

Kortni Bidinger (she/her/hers)
Kortni Bidinger is Bdewakantuwan Dakota and from Cansayapi, Where They Mark the Trees Red. Kortni is an enrolled member of the Lower Sioux Indian Community (LSIC), near Morton, MN, and is currently working as the Healthy Generations Project Coordinator for the Lower Sioux. She has been working for the tribe for the last four years within the Community Health Department. Kortni is also a Staff Representative for the Lower Sioux Health and Human Services Advisory Committee since 2015 and alumni of the Blandin Reservation Community Leadership Program.

Stacy Hammer, RDN, LD (she/her/hers)
Stacy Hammer; is Bdewakantunwan (Spirit Lake Dwellers) Dakota and comes from Cansayapi (Where They Paint the Trees Red), otherwise known as Lower Sioux. Stacy serves as the Director of Community Health and Registered Dietitian for the LSIC. She earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nutrition and Dietetics from MSU, Mankato and completed her Graduate Dietetic Internship program from the University of Delaware. Her collaborative work with the American Indian Cancer Foundation (AICAF) has focused on efforts to normalize healthy eating within American Indian Communities in Minnesota, along with the development of the Healthy Native Foods Toolkit and the Ordering Nutritious & Indigenous Foods Guidelines and Checklist. Further collaboration with AICAF and the Lower Sioux Health and Human Services Advisory Committee has involved working towards positive policy, systems and environmental changes within the Lower Sioux Indian Community through healthy and indigenous foods policy development and implementation.

MAIN STREET PROJECT

Rocky Casillas Aguirre (he/him/his)
Rocky was born in Tijuana, Mexico and raised in Northfield. He has a BA in Fisheries and Wildlife Management from the University of Minnesota and an MS in Conservation Biology from Antioch University New England. Rocky has been working at Main Street Project since 2016. He oversees the Sharing Our Roots and Community Land Share programs, as well as many of Main Street Project’s communications tasks, including writing and designing print and web materials. Next year, Rocky will also pilot new efforts to document the return of wildlife to the farm as the landscape continues to be restored.

Julie Ristau (she/her/hers)
Julie is the Executive Director at Main Street Project in Northfield MN. Main Street Project serves as a regional training and demonstration hub. We focus on approaches to resilient, regenerative agriculture that provide economic opportunity for new farmers—including immigrants—while reducing ecological damage, producing affordable nutritious food, and mitigating climate change.

As a founding principal of Regeneration Partnership LLC, Julie also works with other restorative community-based farms in the Upper Midwest. She was a co-founder and publisher of Utne Reader magazine and held an endowed chair in Agricultural Systems at the University of Minnesota’s. An active community leader, Ristau co-founded and led Homegrown Minneapolis, the city’s urban agriculture and food initiative. She served as a board member of the University’s Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture for six years and is currently serving on the board of Shared Capital Cooperative.

NORTHPOINT HEALTH AND WELLNESS

Latrisha Vetaw (she/her/hers)
Mrs. Vetaw works to reduce the health disparities in communities of color through program development; policy and systems change; utilizing community organizing, education, policy, and advocacy strategies. Her focus areas are reducing tobacco use among youth and priority populations, advocate for policies that create access to healthy foods and physical activity and other areas related to the social determinants of health.

Mrs. Vetaw also serves as an at-Large Commissioner on the Minneapolis Parks Board. Her work on the board is connected to her passion for youth. Her vision is to have healthy, welcoming, and safe parks for everyone. She is working to expand the community engagement process. Mrs. Vetaw has been working to create recreation opportunities for youth and the aging population. She serves as the chair on the Administration and Finance and also the Park Police Governance, Operations and Oversight Committee.

Bethlehem Yewhalawork (she/her/hers)
Bethlehem is a Program Specialist at Northpoint Health and Wellness who focuses on local tobacco policy work at the point-of-sale and community outreach and education about the tobacco industry. She received her BS in Public Health with concentrations in Community Health Work and Public Policy from St. Catherine University. She’s advocated for numerous tobacco prevention policies in the metro area, including increasing the tobacco sales age to 21 and restricting the sale of tobacco products.

OUR STREETS MINNEAPOLIS

Ashwat Narayanan (he/him/his)
Ash is the Executive Director at Our Streets Minneapolis. Previously, Ash worked at 1000 Friends of Wisconsin, a statewide nonprofit dedicated to building healthy communities through better land use. He developed campaigns that shifted funding away from car-centric infrastructure and into walking, biking, and public transit. He authored reports including The Road to Clean Transportation: A Bold, Broad Strategy to Cut Carbon Emissions and Arrive Together: Transportation Access and Equity in Wisconsin. He has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from SRM University, India, and a master’s degree in transportation engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Cindy Vue (she/her/hers)
Cindy (she/her) is the Community Engagement Director at Our Streets Minneapolis. She has eleven years of experience working with underrepresented communities in the Twin Cities. Her work over the years addressed health and wellness in immigrant and homeless communities. At Our Streets Minneapolis, she has led hundreds of volunteers on events that focuses on making streets more bikeable and walkable for everyone. Through the Bicycle Connectors Program, Cindy has fostered strong relationships with community partners in reaching Black, Indigenous and people of color in using bicycling as a vehicle for transportation justice. She is a first-generation Hmong immigrant.

THE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND – MINNESOTA

Eric Weiss (he/him/his)
Eric is the new program director of Trust for Public Land’s community-powered parks. His education and training is as a city planner, but his professional career pathway has provided him opportunities to work in the nonprofit, public, philanthropy, and consulting sectors. Eric’s passions and past experience include long-range planning, good governance and communications, community engagement, food access and grocery store work, active living, zoning policy, organizational development, the evolution of the planning profession, and park and public space. In his personal time, Eric enjoys spending time with his boyfriend and their two dogs, reading comic books, traveling, and searching for the best donuts.