The Fulbright Association has 54 local chapters in 38 states across the U.S. that are led and managed by volunteer alumni who reside in the area. Chapters provide Fulbright alumni and visiting Fulbrighters with diverse opportunities for networking, professional development, mentoring, cultural enrichment, and community service. The Chapter of the Month series allows the Fulbright community to recognize the great work that these chapters are doing.

This month, we are highlighting the Minnesota Chapter!

Answers provided by members of the Minnesota Chapter Board of Directors. 

 

 

Your chapter has been doing great work! Can you share what’s been going on?

During the month of April, our chapter hosted two timely and wonderful receptions and book discussions with authors of recently published books.

The first event, on March 30, featured author Dr. Roya Akhavan (Professor of Mass Communication at St. Cloud State University), whose book Peace for Our Planet: A New Approach was the focus of a rich discussion with an audience of over thirty Fulbright members and guests in downtown Minneapolis. As an important outgrowth of Dr. Akhavan’s engagement with our chapter, she has signed on to become a “Friend of Fulbright” and is now registered for a trip our chapter is planning in July to the International Peace Garden located at the US-Canadian border.

The second book talk and reception was for author Dr. Menah Pratt’s newly released book Blackwildgirl: A Writer’s Journey to Take Back Her Superpower, which took place on April 22, 2024, at the University of Minnesota in the Lindahl Founders Room of Northrop Auditorium. The event was facilitated as a partnership between our Minnesota Chapter of the Fulbright Association and the University of Minnesota Office for Equity and Diversity and was attended by seventy guests, including eight members of our board, members of our greater Twin Cities Fulbright community, as well as important members of the University of Minnesota leadership and community. Blackwildgirl is an autobiography of Dr. Pratt’s journey from Black girlhood to Black womanhood in America. Dr. Pratt is nationally recognized as a leader, scholar, and author of four books on issues of race, class, gender, diversity, education, women’s leadership, and critical race feminism and is the Vice President for Strategic Affairs and Diversity and Professor of Education at Virginia Tech.

 

 

Following these important events, our Minnesota Chapter of the Fulbright Association held its final meeting of the 2023-2024 term on May 8th. During this meeting, we had the opportunity not only to reflect on our work together but also to thank departing board members for their heartfelt and outstanding service over the past years. We extend our gratitude to our Chapter President Michael Dorsher, our Treasurer Mai Nhia Thao, and board members Hendrien Kuipers, James Oberly, and Dan Holland.

 

Who are some stand out members of the chapter? How do they contribute to the Minnesota alumni community? 

• First and foremost, we want to highlight the contributions and excellent leadership of our Chapter President, Michael Dorsher. Thanks to his commitment and service during the last two years of his tenure, our board has grown in numbers and strength as we have envisioned and realized events that truly speak to the core values of the Fulbright mission.

 

• As the Vice President of our board, Sally Kohlstedt’s ongoing service on multiple levels is key to the success of the work we do on behalf of our Fulbright mission in the Twin Cities.

 

• We also want to highlight the contributions of two new board members of our Minnesota Chapter of the Fulbright Association who facilitated the two very successful book events that took place during the month of April: Cheri Shakiban for her proposal and coordination of the book talk Peace for Our Planet: A New Approach and Gwyneth Bravo for facilitating the Blackwildgirl book event in partnership with the University of Minnesota Office of Diversity and Equity. Both Shakiban and Bravo engaged their personal and professional connections to make their respective events a success. Notably, Dr. Shakiban is a “Friend of Fulbright” who, although she has never applied for a grant, has lived and traveled abroad extensively before her recent retirement from the University of St. Thomas, where she was a Professor of Mathematics. Dr. Bravo, who is a Fulbright alumna (Germany) and musicologist, is a faculty member at NYU in Abu Dhabi and divides her time between her life at NYU Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and her US home in Minnesota.

 

What advice would you give to other chapters? 

Deploy the ideas, energy, talent and contacts of all your board members, not just the officers. And seek to diversify your board, by gender, race, age and areas of expertise.

 

Do you have any upcoming programming for members to participate in?

We have three more amazing events coming up this spring and summer that Fulbrighters could participate in and come from anywhere, but especially from the surrounding states of Iowa, Wisconsin and North Dakota. On June 1, we’re going to Rochester, MN, to visit the Mayowood Mansion, led by our board member Hendrien Kuipers, who is a visiting researcher at the world-famous Mayo Clinic, and that afternoon we’re also visiting the Minnesota Marine Art Museum, which is a hidden gem on the shore of the Mississippi River in Winona, MN. On June 29-30, the Minnesota Chapter is returning to the Twin Cities Pride festival for the second year with a bigger and better booth, aiming to increase the gender and racial diversity of Fulbright applicants. And on July 28-31, we’re using a Young Alumni grant to take the train from the Twin Cities to northcentral North Dakota, where we will recruit Fulbright applicants at a tribal college, volunteer on an historic restoration project, host discussions at the International Peace Garden, kayak into Canada and camp in woods where no man-made sounds penetrate.