2024 Awards - Critical Collaborator, Mary Lagarde

Mary Lagarde, a member of the White Earth Nation, has served as the Executive Director of the Minneapolis American Indian Center (MAIC) since 2012. She oversees a broad range of programs in family services, youth services, culture and language, fitness and nutrition, elder support, workforce development, and native arts, and recently led the organization through a top-to-bottom renovation.
MAIC, built in 1975, doubled in size and welcomed new spaces for programs serving families, youth, elders, and jobseekers. With support from Xcel Energy, the building also received a solar/battery microgrid that allows it to have electricity in an emergency, providing a safe place for MAIC’s Native American and other clients to gather, receive services, and recover. This was a roughly $30 million project, and Mary accomplished the extraordinary feat of raising funds through the COVID-19 pandemic, effectively helping MAIC secure a future as a crucial center of gravity for one of the largest urban Indigenous populations in the United States.