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Staff Feature: Allyson Green

Allyson Green portrait

Get to know the Sabo Center!

In each Staff Feature installment, we ask members of the Sabo Center staff to share what they do, along with some fun facts. 

This post features Allyson Green, Chief Sustainability Officer.

 

What do you do at Augsburg?

I help Augsburg live out our call to care for the world around us and the people, plants, and animals who live, work, play, grow, and depend on each other here. The daily reality of that looks different all the time but includes moving Augsburg forward on its climate commitment and other sustainability goals, supporting the Campus Kitchen program, and managing the community garden.

What’s one social issue that is most important to you right now?

Student loan debt and climate change (yes, that’s two, and I’m okay with that!).

What’s your favorite place on Augsburg’s campus?

“The Loveliest of Trees”

If you could recommend one book, movie, or podcast, what would it be and why?

Resmaa Menakem’s My Grandmother’s Hands. It’s been foundational to anti-racism work I’ve been part of that’s not just about changing how we think about white supremacy but recognizing how it shows up in our bodies and learning to navigate it differently and with less harm to the people around us. Read it in community with other people!

What’s your favorite thing to do outside of work?

Currently, sitting on my front porch and chatting with neighbors while the sun goes down!

What are three words you would use to describe yourself?

Curious, adventurous, and usually hungry.

What’s your favorite place in the world?

The bonfire pit that sits between my aunt/uncle’s house and what used to be my grandparents’ (and is now my sister’s) house in my hometown of Baraboo, WI!

What’s the coolest thing you are working on right now?

Answering these questions! And…evaluating our “Green by 2019” climate commitment and collectively envisioning how we want to continue to live up to this in a way that reflects the urgency of climate change and how it intersects with all of our individual, communal, and systemic experiences and structures.

Name one spot in the Twin Cities that you consider a “must-see.”

There’s a big old Cottonwood tree that goes sideways out over the Mississippi River just north of White Sands Beach that’s a “must-climb.”

Who would you most like to swap places with for one day?

A kid! Any kid, I think, because it would be good to be reminded of what that feels like while also bringing all my adult self to that experience.

Have any last facts/favorite quotes/advice/etc. that you would like to share?

I once got to spend 3 hours with Wendell Berry on his porch, swapping stories about the circus and the woods, and also learning that he’s very cynical about giving advice, so I’ll take his lead and say no thanks to giving advice (though I’m sure he had a poetically snarky way of saying it).

Staff Feature: Dennis Donovan

Dennis Donovan with students at Maxfield Elementary

Get to know the Sabo Center!

In each Staff Feature installment, we ask members of the Sabo Center staff to share about what they do, along with some fun facts.

This post features Dennis Donovan, National Organizer for Public Achievement

What do you do at the Sabo Center?

As the National Organizer for Public Achievement I teach co-creative politics skills to people of all ages in the Twin Cities, across the US, and world who want to make positive change in their communities. I help regions implement Public Achievement. The current region that I am working with to implement Public Achievement, is Eau Claire Wisconsin.

 

What’s one social issue that is most important to you right now?

Education

 

What’s your favorite place on Augsburg’s campus?

Christensen Center Coffee Shop area.

 

If you could recommend one book, movie, or podcast, what would it be and why?

Stoking the Fire of Democracy by Stephen Noble Smith. This is the best book about community organizing. Full of stories and skills.

 

What’s your favorite thing to do outside of work?

Hang out with family, friends, and perform music.

 

What are three words you would use to describe yourself?

Political, outgoing, strategic

 

What’s your favorite place in the world?

Istanbul, Turkey. Ask me why!

 

What’s the coolest thing you working on right now?

Criminal Justice Reform

 

Name one spot in the Twin Cities that you would consider a “must-see”?  

Mancini’s Char House

 

Who would you most likely swap places with for a day?

Tony Bennett – he reinvented music.

 

Have any last facts/favorite quotes/advice/etc. that you would like to share?

Be a risk taker and be not afraid to make mistakes.

Staff Feature: Mary Laurel True

 

Portrait photo of Mary Laurel True

Get to know the Sabo Center!

In each Staff Feature installment, we ask members of the Sabo Center staff to share about what they do, along with some fun facts. 

This post features Mary Laurel True, Director of Community Engagement.

 

What do you do at the Sabo Center?

My work is to connect students, faculty, staff and alumni to the community around Augsburg & connect the Augsburg community to the community around us outside of our campus.

What’s one social issue that is most important to you right now?

Climate Change

What’s your favorite place on Augsburg’s campus?

Oren Gateway Center, Room 100

If you could recommend one book, movie, or podcast, what would it be and why?

The movie A Stray

What’s your favorite thing to do outside of work?

Go to music at the Cedar or the Hook and Ladder

What’s your favorite place in the world?

Guanajuato, Mexico

What’s the coolest thing you working on right now?

A book about Cedar-Riverside community partnerships and Augsburg

Name one spot in the Twin Cities that you would consider a “must-see”?

The Mississippi River

Who would you most likely swap places with for a day?

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

 

Staff Feature: Rachel Svanoe

Get to know the Sabo Center!Rachel Svanoe

In each Staff Feature installment, we ask members of the Sabo Center staff to share about what they do, along with some fun facts. 

This post features Rachel Svanoe, Director of LEAD Fellows and Cedar Commons Coordinator.

What do you do at the Sabo Center?

I have two primary roles in the Sabo Center, in addition to other Sabo Center initiatives that my work allows me to be a part of. First, I direct the LEAD Fellows program, a work-study/leadership program through which a cohort of about 30 Auggies work in community organizations and learn together about leadership and social change throughout the year. Second, I organize around the use of Cedar Commons, a campus-neighborhood collaboration space on the edge of our campus that Augsburg supports.

What’s your favorite thing to do outside of work?

To eat good food with people that I love! And to catch up about life.

What are three words you would use to describe yourself?

Reflective, spunky, genuine.

What’s your favorite place in the world?

I grew up near Powderhorn Park in south Minneapolis. Not only is it my favorite place to go when I need to think or be refreshed, but so many important moments in my life have happened there! Someday I want to organize an event where people tell stories about all of the major life moments that have happened in that park.

What’s the coolest thing you’re working on right now?

This year, I’ve been learning deeply from the work of Resmaa Menakem (“My Grandmother’s Hands”) and Rachel Martin (his mentee). Their work explores racialized trauma and the ways in which the bodies of those of us raised in this country carry the impacts of racism, whether we have a body of color that is targeted by it or a white body that is complicit in carrying it out. Resmaa and Rachel’s work provides a model for healing these deeply embedded patterns in our bodies and I’m hoping to bring this work to Augsburg, helping us to become a campus where everyone can be in more authentic relationship with each other with greater safety and less fear.

Name one spot in the Twin Cities that you consider a “must-see.”

Besides Powderhorn Park, I’ve really been enjoying St. Anthony Main and the Stone Arch Bridge lately. It’s a pretty magical place to walk around, in every season!