New Bush Foundation Fellows include amputee, journalist, architect, more

Yahoo

2 days ago

Mohamed Ahmed had just dropped his youngest daughter at a program at the Hosmer Library in Minneapolis in 2016 when a car began speeding toward him on the sidewalk.
Ahmed jumped between two parked cars to avoid getting hit, but the driver smashed into the back of the rear parked car. The force crushed Ahmed's left leg.
'I don't know if they were texting or had been drinking alcohol or whatever, but somehow they ended up on the sidewalk,' said Ahmed, who lives in St. Paul. 'I got my right leg out, but not my left.'
Ahmed, who emigrated from Somalia to the U.S. when he was 17, had his left leg amputated above the knee and now uses a high-tech, computerized knee called a 'c-leg.'
Since his amputation, Ahmed has worked to ensure equitable access to prosthetic care for underserved communities, both in Minnesota and globally. He is a volunteer with the Protez Foundation, an Oakdale-based organization that provides free prosthetics for people who have lost limbs, especially as a result of wars, in underserved areas of the world, and Wiggle Your Toes, an organization dedicated to helping victims and families of victims who have experienced limb loss.
Ahmed is one of 29 new fellows chosen by the Bush Foundation for their work in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and the 23 Native nations that share the same geography. Each fellow will receive up to $150,000 to fund 12-to-24 months of study and reflection, often in other states or countries, with the goal of making them better leaders.
Ahmed plans to use his award to complete a master's of science degree in orthotics and prosthetics from Concordia University in St. Paul, strengthen his policy and advocacy skills and expand his impact on disability justice and healthcare access. He particularly wants to help people in Somalia and Yemen, he said.
'Here, if you lose your leg, you can go to a clinic and get a prosthetic,' he said. 'In third-world countries, if you lose your leg, you lose everything. You lose your livelihood, you lose your transportation. Everything is out of the window. I'll be working to help those people remain independent – to be able to support their family; get kids back to school, adults back to work, and to support their community. So it's a win-win situation for everybody.'
In total, seven of this year's 29 Bush Fellows live or work in St. Paul or the east metro. The Bush Foundation, based in downtown St. Paul, chose them from among 1,000 applicants. Here's more about them:
Georgia Fort, a three-time Midwest Emmy Award-winning journalist from St. Paul, is working to reshape the media landscape to center community and representation. 'Less than 3 percent of journalists in the state of Minnesota are Black,' she said. 'I think it's really important that our newsrooms reflect the diversity of the communities they serve, and that's what I aim to accomplish.'
Fort, who grew up on St. Paul's East Side, is the founder of BLCK Press and the Center for Broadcast Journalism in St. Paul. She left mainstream media eight years ago 'to build platforms that elevate underreported stories and develop the next generation of Black and brown journalists,' she said.
Fort plans to use her fellowship to pursue a certificate in leadership at Harvard University and develop a personal wellness plan that will allow her 'to continue building a journalism ecosystem that affirms community, develops talent, and ensures that all voices are seen and heard.'
Two years ago, Fort launched a weekly half-hour TV show, 'Here's The Truth with Georgia Fort,' on The CW Twin Cities. 'We had a shoestring budget, and we made it happen, but the reality is, the transformation that we want to see on that side of our work is going to require more than just a 30-minute time slot once a week,' Fort said. 'Journalism is a pillar of democracy, and in order for this region and this nation to move forward, we need more than just a 30-minute show. We need a network. And so how do we build that? I'm excited to have the next two years to really have the time and space to become the leader that will be required to bring forth that vision.'
James Garrett Jr., of St. Paul, believes architecture should be used as a tool for equity, cultural expression, and community transformation. Many of the projects designed by his firm, 4RM+ULA, reflect the aspirations of underserved communities from North Minneapolis to the Rondo neighborhood of St. Paul.
For example, the Rondo Commemorative Plaza in St. Paul, which his firm designed, 'commemorates the neighborhood that was there before (Interstate 94) was built,' he said. It includes a 30-foot illuminated sign that 'is wrapped in art and says 'Rondo,' and it kind of claims that space. It says, 'Hey, we're still here. The community was devastated, but we're still here.''
'We're really interested in community and understanding how best we can reflect the community values and identity and create an artwork that expresses those things, gives people that sense of pride and that sense of belonging and ownership to connections of place,' said Garrett, whose great-grandmother is believed to be the first Black person to purchase a home in Rondo. 'A lot of times that's missing in our underserved neighborhoods or lower-income communities. People don't get to build new buildings; they just sort of inhabit the buildings that are left over from prior eras. Going into community and really pushing to be able to create spaces and places that actually speak to who people are and what they aspire to be in new and creative ways, that's really our motivation.'
Garrett said he plans to use his fellowship to 'deepen his exploration of sustainable, climate-responsive materials and methods of building construction and expand his network as a thought leader for inclusive design.'
Leya Hale is 'indigenizing filmmaking by rooting the creative process in Indigenous language, kinship and worldview,' Bush officials said.
Hale, a citizen of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate and Dine Nations, is a multiple regional Emmy Award-winning documentary producer for Twin Cities PBS. She has earned national acclaim for films like 'Bring Her Home' and 'The People's Protectors,' which uplift Indigenous stories and resilience.
Hale plans to use her fellowship to strengthen her Dakota language skills, expand her technical and narrative filmmaking skills, and build a global network of Indigenous creatives reshaping the future of media.
Hale lives in West St. Paul.
Pastor Carl Johnson is transforming food access and economic opportunity on St. Paul's East Side through faith-rooted leadership and community ownership.
Johnson, of St. Paul, founded the neighborhood's first Black-owned 'micro' grocery store and the George Washington Carver Cultural Center for Innovation, a hub for youth mentorship and cooperative business development.
The concept has been so successful that Johnson is working on starting other 'micro' grocery stores across the Twin Cities, including the North End and downtown St. Paul. The stores, called Storehouse Grocers and Coffee Co-op, include a coffee shop.
Johnson plans to use his fellowship to complete his degree in entrepreneurship, pursue certification in cultural intelligence, and deepen his spiritual and cultural leadership through ancestral pilgrimage and learning Swahili.
'I plan to start in Kenya, in East Africa, where I have some DNA representation,' he said. 'Then I will be going to Rwanda … to see what we call 'a fully sustainable culture.' They take one day out of the month, and the whole country cleans up the environment. I just thought, 'Man, what would it look like to see someplace where everybody cleans up?''
Marvis Kilgore has an ambitious goal: Close the equity gap in education by increasing the presence and power of Black male educators.
Studies show that if Black male students have a Black male teacher before fifth grade, they're more likely to graduate from high school and attend college, according to Kilgore. 'How they think about themselves changes because they have someone in close proximity to them who can understand lived experience and take that lived experience and connect it in the classroom to create something more magical,' he said.
Kilgore is executive director of Code Savvy, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit offering computer science training programs to students and school districts focused on traditionally underserved student communities. He previously served as program director for Sirtify, a Normandale Community College program dedicated to recruiting Black men in K-12 teaching.
He said he plans to use his fellowship to 'expand his leadership in educational equity, strengthen his policy expertise and explore how innovation and technology can drive systemic transformation in teacher preparation and retention,' he said.
'My plan is to really get out in the state of Minnesota to understand the reason why there is this huge equity gap in education,' said Kilgore, who lives on St. Paul's East Side. 'I know what the numbers say, but I want to hear from Black men across the state of Minnesota to understand their why. Data is great, but it doesn't come with voice. I need to understand the voice of the people to be able to affect change in a more meaningful way and be a more effective voice of change and advocacy.'
As a first-generation Hmong-Chinese-American and a parent of neurodivergent children, Maychee Mua helped establish Minnesota's first autism Medicaid program for children under 21 and the state's first cultural competency training for autism providers. Her advocacy expertise extends to housing, behavioral health and advocating for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Mua, of Cottage Grove, is 'reimagining autism advocacy through a culturally attuned and healing-centered lens,' Bush officials said. 'Her work dismantles barriers with empathy, cultural fluency and deep systems knowledge.'
Mua, the co-author of the Hmong children's book 'I Am a Hmong-American Child,' plans to use her fellowship to 'reconnect with her cultural roots, design holistic healing frameworks and develop resources that bridge Southeast Asian traditions with Western systems of care.'
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