From her early years growing up in a small town in Isanti County to serving as Minnesota’s first female lieutenant governor, Marlene Johnson has consistently centered the importance of education not just as a pathway to opportunity, but as a foundation for strong, connected communities.

This is something she learned from her family.

“In our family, education was a requirement,” said Marlene.

Her mother was the founder of Isanti County’s historic society and an early leader in the local food shelf program, which she managed for several years. She was also very involved with the Braham community and its students.

During the last 10 years of Marlene’s mother’s life, she talked to Marlene about how she could make a long-term impact. Those conversations led Marlene to reach out to the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation, where her mother established a designated education fund.

Since 2016, the fund has provided scholarships to students at Braham Area School in Marlene’s hometown. While her mother is no longer living, Marlene continues to carry on her legacy through the fund by prioritizing access to education.

Her mother also inspired Marlene to make her own impact. At an early age, Marlene knew she had a passion for education and culture, both locally and internationally.

When she was young, her family hosted international students through the American Foreign Student International Exchange Program (AFS). This opportunity not only shaped Marlene’s value of education but influenced her career path. She would later serve on the AFS international board of trustees and the NAFSA: Association of International Educators.

While she was a student at Macalester College, she became involved in politics, leading the Democratic feminist movement on campus in the 1970s. Her work in business inspired her to take things a step further by considering a political office.

When she served as lieutenant governor from 1983-1991 alongside Governor Rudy Perpich, she spotlighted children’s issues with the Governor’s Youth Council and the Whole Child Initiative, identifying community resources and working to close gaps in services to children.

Global Impact on Education

Marlene’s passion for youth and education extends internationally as well as locally.

Since 2010 Marlene has supported Kakenya’s Dream, an organization committed to helping build schools, shifting cultural norms and creating pathways to higher education for girls in rural Kenya. Named after Dr. Kakenya Ntaiya, Kakenya’s Dream strives to break patriarchal norms and systems in rural Kenya, such as forced childhood marriage, forced female genital mutilation (FGM) and denied education.

“Today, the campus of Kakenya’s Dream serves about 320 girls from fourth through ninth grade, and the first girls who entered fourth grade in 2009,” said Marlene. “All of them completed high school and went on to higher education.”

Supporting Youth Starts with Us

For Marlene, supporting youth means addressing the full picture — education, childcare, health, community connection and opportunity.

“Our society needs to do a better job by children,” said Marlene. “We’re the only developed country in the Western world that doesn’t have universal childcare, which relates to how children get started and to how families can function in a society.”

For Marlene, this means remembering the importance of service and celebrating the small ways people are able to make an impact on their communities every day.

To learn more about Marlene Johnson, check out her interview on “Conversations with Chanda.”