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The MAPL Program

GUEST SPEAKERS > Spring 2006

The MAPL program contacts a number of outstanding leaders in advocacy and politics to ask them to agree to be part of MAPL's pool of community faculty. This page lists some of our guest speakers involved in the Spring 2006 Semester.

Michael Skoler, Managing Director of Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), joined our Policy and the Media MAPL course as a community faculty team member on Saturday 4/29/06.

Michael Skoler, Managing Director of MPR, entered journalism 24 year ago, after leaving the French wine business and buying a book titled, How to Be a Freelance Writer. His work in print, radio, and television has received numerous honors, including two duPont-Columbia Silver Batons, a Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Award, and a Gold Medal at the International Radio Festival of New York.

As the MPR Director, he oversees the regional newsroom and is leading the news division’s effort to create a new model for journalism – one that consistently taps the insights and expertise of the public to both broaden and strengthen news coverage. This Public Insight Journalism recognizes the knowledge of the audience as a powerful way to expand the perspectives and information coming into the newsroom. MPR’s public source network now numbers 12,000 people throughout the state. The newsroom uses this resource to identify emerging stories, define major news projects, gather information on deadline and find fresh sources.

Skoler's background bridges the editorial and business worlds. After a decade as a science and foreign correspondent for National Public Radio, he earned an MBA as a Frank Batten Media Fellow at the University of Virginia. He then worked as a management consultant on his own and for McKinsey and Company serving mainly media and e-commerce companies. Skoler's earlier experience included writing a daily, syndicated radio show for CBS, television reporting for WGBH in Boston, and freelance writing for magazines ranging from Glamour to American Health and Reader’s Digest. He traveled and wrote for the popular Let's Go travel guides. He has taught and lectured on journalism both in the U.S. and Africa. He is a graduate of Harvard University and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard in 1992-93.

Dan Cramer of Grassroots Solutions joined our Rural Politics MAPL course as a community faculty team member on Saturday 4/01/06.

Dan Cramer is the co-founder of Grassroots Solutions, a national consulting firm that specializes in grassroots advocacy, organizing, political field consulting, and training. Recent Grassroots Solutions clients have included: America Votes, the Beldon Fund, Fairview Health Systems, the McKnight Foundation, Medtronic, the Minnesota Council on Nonprofits, the National Education Association and the Sierra Club. Prior to forming Grassroots Solutions, Dan worked as Field Director of U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone’s first campaign, a low-budget, grassroots-focused effort that resulted in a surprise victory over a well-funded incumbent. Dan then worked as a Legislative Aide and Political Director for the Senator, and acted as Deputy Campaign Manager on Senator Wellstone’s reelection campaign in 1996.

Dan began his grassroots career as a community organizer for the National Training and Information Center (NTIC) in his hometown of Chicago, coordinating a city wide, community-based anti-drug coalition. As part of this job, Dan received extensive training in direct action organizing strategies and learned first hand the power of collective action as a force for social and policy change.

Following his Chicago organizing experience and work for Senator Wellstone, Dan served as Executive Assistant to Minnesota House Speaker Phil Carruthers, and as campaign director of the Minnesota House DFL Caucus. Dan has also put his organizing expertise to work as Minnesota Campaign Manager for the Tom Harkin for President campaign, as well as manager of Congressman David Minge's (MN-2) first campaign in 1992 when Minge won by 569 votes. Dan also worked as an attorney specializing in government relations with the Gray, Plant, Mooty law firm in Minneapolis.

Dan has led grassroots trainings and created organizing plans for clients across the country. He specializes in working with organizations, coalitions and corporations to leverage their existing internal resources, expand their grassroots capacity and build sustainable grassroots infrastructures.

Nan Madden, Director of the Minnesota Budget Project, joined our MAPL Gender and Public Policy class as a community faculty team member on Friday 3/24/06.

Nan Madden has been the Director of the Minnesota Budget Project since 1999. The Minnesota Budget Project is an initiative of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits that provides independent research, analysis, and advocacy on budget and tax issues, emphasizing their impact on low- and moderate-income persons and the organizations that serve them. Madden is an active voice for tax fairness, a balanced approach to Minnesota’s budget, and adequate funding of government programs, and the author of numerous publications on fiscal issues as well as economic self-sufficiency.

Nan Madden previously worked at Family & Children’s Service as a policy advocate working on welfare issues and low-income tax credits. She serves on the Steering Committee of the Affirmative Options Coalition, a statewide coalition that promotes public policies that create opportunities for low-income Minnesotans to achieve economic security. Madden has an MA, International Studies, from the University of Denver and a BA from Macalester College in St. Paul.

Karen Diver, Director of Special Projects for the Fond du Lac Reservation, joined our MAPL Political Organization and Communication course as a community faculty team member on Saturday 3/25/06.

Karen Diver is the Director of Special Projects for the Fond du Lac Reservation. Previous to that she served as the Executive Director of the YWCA of Duluth, a position that she held for eleven years. Karen holds a Bachelors degree in Economics from the University of Minnesota, Duluth, and a Masters degree in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Karen attended Harvard as a Bush Leadership Fellow. She served for six years on the Minnesota Council of Non-Profits Board of Directors, including two terms as chair. She was chair for six years on the seven county Arrowhead Welfare Reform Partnership. Karen was a founding member of American Indian Community Housing Organization, the Duluth Community Action Program, Duluth Family Services Collaborative and the Duluth Human Rights Commission. She is a past gubernatorial appointee of Governor Arne Carlson to the Governor's Workforce Development Council. She is currently the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Women's Foundation of Minnesota and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Blandin Foundation. She has experience in the areas of program and community development, workforce development, organizational development and management, poverty and women’s issues and culturally competent programming. Karen is an enrolled member of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. She lives with her husband Arnold Selnes in Brevator Township, and has a two grown children, daughter Rochelle and stepson Nicholas.

Ann Wynia, President of North Hennepin Community College, joined our MAPL Gender and Public Policy class as a community faculty team member on Friday 3/10/06.

Ann Wynia became President of North Hennepin Community College in December of 1997. North Hennepin Community College provides both credit and non credit instruction to over 10,000 students a year at its primary location in Brooklyn Park as well as in Buffalo.

Ann began her teaching career at the college in 1970, but her thirty-five year association with the college has been combined with several other challenging career opportunities. In 1976 she began the first of seven terms in the Minnesota House of Representatives culminating with two terms as House Majority Leader. In 1989 then Governor Perpich appointed her to serve as Commissioner of the Department of Human Services, Minnesota’s largest state agency, and in 1991 she was elected a Regent of the University of Minnesota. In 1994 she was a candidate for the U. S. Senate.

As a community volunteer, Ann currently serves on the boards of the Wilder Foundation and Health Partners and on the Hennepin County Workforce Investment Board.

Lori Sturdevant of the Star Tribune, joined our MAPL Political Organizing and Communications class as a community faculty team member on Saturday 3/11/06.

Since 1992, Lori has been working with the Star Tribune. She is the editorial writer and columnist specializing in coverage of state government and politics, higher education and rural development. From 1995 to 2001, she had been the moderator of the Minnesota Citizens’ Forum. Prior to these experiences, Lori had been an assistant city editor covering city, county, and state government, and a lead State Capitol reporter. Her editorial resume include, "A Man’s Reach: the Autobiography of Elmer L. Andersen” (August 2000, University of Minnesota Press), “I Trust to Be Believed: Speeches and Reflections by Elmer L. Andersen” (spring 2004, Nodin Press), “Overcoming: the Autobiography of W. Harry Davis” (October 2002, Afton Historical Society Press), and "Changemaker: the Harry Davis story for young readers" (September 2003, Afton Historical Society Press). Lori has a B.A. in science journalism from Coe College. Awards won include the 2001 Premack Award and the 2005 “Friend of the Humanities” award of the Minnesota Humanities Commission.

Minnesota State Senator, Keith Langseth joined our MAPL Political Process course as a community faculty team member on Saturday 3/4/6.

Tim Flaherty joined our MAPL Rural Politics course as a community faculty team member on Saturday 3/4/06.

Tim Flaherty, attorney with Flaherty & Hood, P.A., has nearly 25 years of legal and lobbying experience at the Minnesota State Legislature. Tim specializes in education finance, economic development, appropriations, and municipal law. He has also been an attorney for Briggs & Morgan, P.A., Holmes and Graven, and The Nature Conservancy. Additionally, Mr. Flaherty was a Legislative Liaison with the City of Minneapolis and Researcher for the Minnesota House of Representatives. In Oregon, he was an attorney in general practice after extensive experience conducting research and analysis for the Legislative Counsel's Office, Legislative Interim Committee on Revenue, and Council of State Governments between 1971 and 1977. He also wrote, School Finance in Oregon: An Overview. Mr. Flaherty received his Juris Doctor in 1976 from Northwestern School of Law in Portland, Oregon.

Dane Smith and Patricia Lopez of the Minneapolis Star Tribune joined our MAPL Policy and the Media course as a community faculty team member on Saturday 2/18/06.

Paul B. Anderson joined our MAPL Rural Politics class as a community faculty team member on Saturday 2/18/06.

Paul B. Anderson is a licensed Architect and serves as Director of the Environmental Education Studio of Partners & Sirny. He was raised in the Saint Croix River valley of western Wisconsin.

He holds Bachelor degrees in Architecture and Environmental Design from the University of Minnesota in 1980.

Paul is committed both personally and professionally to environmental education and interpretation, as well as to ecologically sustainable building design. He serves on the Board of Directors of the International Wolf Center, the Advisory Board of the Listening Point Foundation, and is past President of the Governing Board of the Audubon Center of the North Woods.

Paul has applied this commitment to the design of numerous facilities for environmental education and interpretation from Illinois to Alaska.

Paul approaches each project with a desire to create simple and elegant solutions that reflect the unique sense and spirit of the place in which the projected is located, respond to the mission of the organization served, and incorporate ecologically sustainable design principles.

Paul currently resides in Bloomington, Minnesota with his wife Rebecca, daughters Claire and Hannah, and dog Heather.

Diane Cushman joined our MAPL Gender and Public Policy class as a community faculty team member on Friday 2/10/06.

Diane Cushman is the director of the Minnesota Legislative Coordinating Commission Office on the Economic Status of Women (OESW), a non-partisan joint commission that serves the Minnesota House and Senate. The OESW advises and informs Minnesota legislators on female population characteristics, educational attainment and enrollments, marital and parental status, household characteristics, labor force status and employment characteristics, and women's legal and economic rights. The OESW has worked closely with members of the legislature over the past two years to develop legislation to address the issue of human trafficking in Minnesota.

Diane achieved national recognition as the manager of the work/life initiative at The St. Paul Companies, now St. Paul Traveler’s. While there she developed the onsite childcare center, the onsite employee fitness center, paid parental leave policies, an adoption assistance benefit, flexible work arrangements, telecommuting policies, the lactation program, childcare resource and referral program, eldercare consultation and referral and numerous other work/life programs. Under her leadership The St. Paul Companies achieved recognition as one of the best places to work in America from Fortune magazine and Working Mother magazine as well as number Minnesota publications.

Diane has undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Minnesota.

Robbie LaFleur joined our MAPL Political Process class as a community faculty team member on Saturday 2/11/06.

Robbie LaFleur is the Director of the Legislature Reference Library and has been with the Library for almost twenty years. She remembers the days when researching a current bill meant walking over to the Capitol and getting a print copy, and a fax machine was considered cutting-edge. Ms. LaFleur has long been an advocate of the early adoption of new technologies to improve the Library's services to the Legislature and the public; the Library's Web page now includes an RSS feed, and the Library delivers many of its current awareness services via e-mail. She is a past Chair of the National Conference of State Legislatures Legislative Research Librarians Staff Section. Her undergraduate degree in Scandinavian Studies and graduate degree in Library Science are both from the University of Minnesota.

Breanne Massee, Producer of WDIO-TV, joined our MAPL 5302 course, Policy and the Media, as a community faculty team member on Saturday, 01/28/06.

Breanne Massee is the producer of award-winning WDIO WIRT-TV Eyewitness News. As producer, it is her responsibility, in concert with the news director and the anchor to build the newscast into a working model of the day’s events. Breanne began her broadcast career with a degree in communication and minors in both journalism and information design at the University of Minnesota Duluth, she honed her skills on a daily two hour early morning broadcast. She is now the executive producer of Eyewitness News at 6 &10, the television station’s flagship newscasts.

Tom Gillaspy joined our MAPL 5116 course, Rural Politics, as a community faculty team member on Saturday, 01/28/06.

Tom Gillaspy has served as the Minnesota State Demographer since 1979. During that time, he has been involved with a wide-ranging set of issue, applying an understanding of demographic trends in such areas as the state’s economy, health care for an aging population, education, higher education, welfare reform, rural population change, labor shortages, immigration, housing, government spending, and the aging state workforce. The demographer is in the Minnesota Department of Administration.

Prior to moving to Minnesota, Tom held the position of demographer at the Andrus Gerontology Center, University of Southern California. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the Pennsylvania State University, specializing in economic demography. He also holds a Masters Degree in agricultural economics. Born and raised in Texas, he received his undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Texas at Austin.

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