Ensuring critical student consumer protections while working to demystify student debt is essential if Minnesota wants to ensure racial equity in college access and reduce the disproportionate debt POCI students face. According to the nonprofit Student Borrower Protection Center, there are 775,300 student-loan borrowers in Minnesota with a collective $29.1 billion in student-loan debt, for an average student-loan debt load of about $37,500 per borrower. Minnesotans rank fourth in…

How Minnesota’s college leaders must can alongside students, staff, and faculty to understand and address the racial realities of students of color and American Indian students.

Minnesota’s college and universities need to prepare for POCI students, instead of requiring POCI students to meet the needs of a higher education system that wasn’t designed for them.

How we can work to undo and fundamentally transform the historical systems and structures of racism in ourselves, our institutions, and our communities. 

I joined Minnesota State as the Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives – Equity 2030 on March 11, 2020, just days before Governor Walz issued the order that sent Minnesotans across the state to work from home. Over the next several months, as I reacclimated to the state in which I grew up and learned how it changed in the 8…