2017 Fellow

Anna Claussen

Project Description

Recognizing that there’s a lot of action on climate already taking place in rural communities and instead of trying to “sell” climate policy ideas to rural communities, Ms. Claussen will engage and empower organizations and leaders, rooted in rural communities, on climate policy and seek to strengthen our democracy through revitalized rural civic participation.

Ms. Claussen will launch a National Rural Climate Dialogue Engagement Effort. This engagement effort will build on a series of Rural Climate Dialogues, that she developed in her role at the Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy, which elevated the voices of rural Minnesotans to advance more inclusive state climate policy. The dialogues connect climate policy with rural economic development concerns, empower rural communities, and identify cross-agency opportunities for improving programs and policies to better enable local governments to mitigate and adapt to climate change. This fellowship would provide the opportunity to launch this effort nationally.

Built on the transformative power of humanity and the role of the arts in surfacing the empathy needed to re-build our country, Anna will bring national attention to the values, culture and capabilities of rural people and of rural places. By enlightening and expanding our understanding of others, Anna intends to work counter to the current mainstream media which increases hostility and contributes to growing mistrust.