Board
Hibo Abdi
Propel Nonprofits
Hibo has worked in nonprofits for seven years. Prior to joining Propel, she worked for Seward Redesign where her work focused on developing, implementing, and growing Seward Redesign’s lending program including planning, budgeting, fundraising, implementing programs and operations, as well as program marketing. Previously, she worked for the African Development Center (ADC) where she was responsible for supporting a portfolio of businesses as well as soliciting and servicing prospective and current clients to produce a variety of business loans. she was also involved with generating and managing a portfolio of non-loan businesses and corresponding relationships. She has a Master’s degree (MBA) in International Business from Hamline University and a Bachelor of Arts in Health Science and Management from George Mason University. She aims to offer insights into immigrants’ assets and valuable contributions, explore ways to integrate them into thriving and inclusive communities, and promote community wealth-building initiatives.
Kadra Abdi
Metropolitan Consortium of Community Developers
Kadra Abdi is a Minneapolis-based creative strategist and human rights activist committed to advancing racial equity in Minnesota and imagining an alternative world centered on equity. She is co-Director of Public Policy and Field Building with the Metropolitan Consortium of Community Developers. She is also a founder and curator of Ubuntu, a platform that spotlights emergent issues impacting the global black diaspora, and Synergy, a consulting business dedicated to helping BIPOC small businesses. She is deeply connected to the black and Muslim social justice community in the Twin Cities and her work and activism uplift equity, inclusion, and accessibility issues. She currently serves as a board member of the Center for Victims of Torture and the Twin Cities Media Alliance. She holds a Master of Public Policy degree with a minor in Human Rights from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs and a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and Gender Studies from Luther College. As a board member of the Alliance, she hopes to support advocacy efforts for resources and policy changes for BIPOC small businesses and work to address racial disparities in housing.
Candy Bakion
MICAH
Bright and bubbly, Candy is a constant learner who believes life lessons come from natural experiences. A life-long Minneapolis and current Heritage Park Resident, Candy has many years of customer service experience at a variety of organizations including MICAH. When she is not rolling with her entourage of five children, and a Grandson, she enjoys connecting with people through chatting and sharing knowledge.
Nichole Buehler
Harrison Neighborhood Association
Nichole is the Executive Director of the Harrison Neighborhood Association. Since 2017, she has been working to advance HNA’s mission to create a prosperous and peaceful community that equitably benefits all of Harrison neighborhood’s diverse racial, cultural, and economic groups. Nichole has nearly 20 years of experience in advocacy, policy, and community organizing work. After receiving her Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Spanish Studies from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, she worked with the Resource Center of the America’s El Centro de Derechos Laborales, advocating for workers without documentation as they faced discrimination and abuse in the workplace. She received her law degree from Hamline University School of Law with a focus on Employment and Labor Law, and has been a practicing attorney since 2010, working with clients on a sliding-scale fee or in a pro-bono capacity on cases involving employment discrimination, unemployment claims, tenants’ rights, and criminal defense. From 2014 to 2017, Nichole served on the boards of the West Bank Community Coalition and the Cedar-Riverside Neighborhood Revitalization Program where she found her passion for place-based community organizing. In 2017, Nichole helped form the MSP Airport Rapid Response Team in response to the Muslim Travel Ban which worked nonstop to train, schedule, and deploy over 300 attorneys at the airport, meeting every affected international flight arriving at MSP for six weeks. For her work on that volunteer effort, Nichole received the Advocates for Human Rights Special Recognition Award. Nichole was also an active volunteer organizer for the 15 Now! campaign in Minneapolis, and later served on the 15 Now!–St. Paul Board of Directors where she helped organize a major win for workers in their struggle for livable wages.
Denise Butler
African Career, Education & Resource Inc
Denise is the Associate Director at the African Career, Education & Resource, Inc. (ACER). With more than 10 years of experience, she leads and oversees various projects to address micro-businesses’ needs in the Northwest suburbs of the Twin Cities. In her work, she liaises with the regional, county, and city government elected officials and staff, and non-profit organizations to engage them in core initiatives to increase access to information, resources, and opportunities and move innovative policies to shift the outcomes for ethnic businesses and underrepresented and underserved BIPOC communities. Denise holds a Master of Science in organizational leadership and a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from the University of St. Thomas. Venturing into entrepreneurship, she established her consultancy firm in 2014 which focuses on BIPOC women’s enterprises, entertainment, real estate, and staffing, with the aim of closing the employment gap for people of color in Minnesota. Denise has served on the Charter Commission for the City of Brooklyn Park; volunteered as a member of the City’s New Connect program to welcome new residents to the community; and supported civic participation as an election precinct judge supervisor. Through her work for racial equity and environmental justice, she has been a part of many campaigns, including serving as the co-chair for the Blue Line Coalition for six years and managing a successful campaign for an elected Brooklyn Park City council member. She has also served as lead organizer for the Northwest Community Collaborative and helped to form Black Immigrant Collective (BIC) where she serves as a board member. In 2022 she received the Top Women in Finance award, recognizing her hard work in business and community.
Sunny Chanthanouvong
Lao Assistance Center of Minnesota
Sunny Chanthanouvong is the award-winning executive director of the nationally-recognized Lao Assistance Center of Minnesota. He began in 1991 working with his fellow refugees in Minnesota and across the United States as a Youth Specialist. He became the Executive Director in 2001. He is passionate about improving the quality of life to meet the needs of Southeast Asian refugees, their families, neighbors, and other stakeholders around the world. Among his distinctions, he holds a Bush Fellowship and a Virginia McKnight- Binger Award for Humanitarian Services. He is a certified interpreter and is fluent in Lao, Thai, and English. Sunny Chanthanouvong is also a member of the Minnesota Compulsive Gambling Advisory Committee, the Minneapolis Human Rights Commission, and the Asian Pacific Health Consortium. He recently joined the NorthStar Problem Gambling Board of Directors to bring almost 3 decades of experience addressing bicultural, multigenerational problem gambling prevention.
Charles Frempong-Longdon, Jr
Minnesota Environmental Justice Table
Charles is the Community Engagement Manager at the Minnesota Environmental Justice Table, an organization with a mission to build a sustainable ecosystem led by frontline communities that is value-driven, radically imaginative, and generative in its overall approach. Prior to joining the EJ Table, he served as part of the Healthy Communities Program at the Sierra Club North Star Chapter, an organization that he still supports as a member of its executive committee. As an organizer, he has had the opportunity to work on issues ranging from Zero Waste and recycling to Land Use, Affordable Housing, and Anti-Displacement. he primarily participates in this work through the lens of environmental justice. A major component of his work focuses on the intersections of culture and social justice. In this regard, he has been part of the development of several training modules such as; Ecopoetry A Study of Queer Ecology, Community Care Sessions, and EJ Film Series.
Malik Holt-Shabazz
At Large
Malik is the Neighborhood Leadership and Organizing (*NLO) Program Coordinator & Trainer for University of Minnesota – Twin Cities’ Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA). His experiences include Union Organizer for the AFL-CIO; Executive Director and Economic Development Organizer of North Minneapolis’s Harrison Neighborhood Association; Director of City of Saint Paul’s District 6 Planning Council; and Statewide Director for the Minnesota Higher Education Services Office at AmeriCorps. Malik is passionate about Issues based Organizing centered around Base Building, Reparative Racial Justice, Community-led Systems Change, Community Benefits-based economic developments including CBAs, equitable development scorecard legacy work, and land use planning. Malik is also a registered Civil mediator through the Conflict Resolution Center of Minnesota. One of Malik’s favorite careers outside of CURA work was his time as an Emergency Services Director for American Red Cross – Illinois. Malik graduated from the University of Minnesota – Morris.
Anthony Taylor
Major Taylor Bicycling Club of Minnesota
Anthony Taylor is a co-founder of the Major Taylor Bicycling Club of Minnesota, founded in 1999 with the commitment to increase the participation of the African American community in cycling for sport, transportation, and health improvement. He is also a member of the League of American Bicyclists Equity Advisory Council, co-founder and VP of the National Brotherhood of Cyclists, and the founder of Slow Roll Twin Cities. He is actively engaged in partnerships that use active living and the outdoors as a tool to build community, increase personal power, community safety, and improve the wellbeing of our youth and families with a special commitment in historically oppressed communities. He recently served as the Director of Adventures and Equity Programs for the Loppet Foundation and has been a consultant with The Sanneh Foundation, The YMCA of the North, and The Cultural Wellness Center, Minneapolis Park Board, HGA Architects and The DNR at the intersection of equity, the outdoors, youth development, and community development. He currently serves as a member of the AARP Executive Council for AARP MN and was appointed by Gov. Walz to the Governor’s Council on Age-Friendly Minnesota and as a Commissioner on the Metropolitan Council Open Space Commission, responsible for funding and policy in the Regional Park Systems and the founder of Melanin In Motion leading outdoor adventures for BIPOC families and youth. He hopes to support the Alliance in directing the power of its membership in systems change that shows up as increased community agency and equitable public policy.
José A. Zayas Caban
Our Streets
José is the Executive Director for Our Streets, where he works on developing reparative justice campaigns across the Twin Cities. He is also a 2023 board member at Streets.mn and finished serving as co-convener and Advisory Board member in a climate and mobility justice campaign that aims to increase multimodal transportation and reduce vehicle miles traveled and improve equitable access to transportation infrastructure across the state of Minnesota. In addition, as a 2022— 2023, José is a Mapping Prejudice Project Community Fellow conducting research into the intersections between racial covenants, transportation, housing and land use; a resident at the University of Minnesota Liberal Arts Engagement Hub working on an essay for the upcoming book Human Tolls: Public Histories and Community Responses to Twin Cities’ Freeways; and a McKnight Artist Fellow for his music.
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