Bush Foundation Welcomes Two 2017 Ron McKinley Philanthropy Fellows

January 23, 2017

We welcome newly selected Ron McKinley Philanthropy Fellows, Awale Osman and Kristell Caballero Saucedo, to the Foundation as Community Innovation Program Associates.

Awale Osman has a variety of experiences with community organizing and program development in nonprofit, K-12 and higher education. He has lived disparate experiences from war-torn Somalia, to Kenyan refugee camps, to English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) in American classrooms, to high academic honors.

His work includes expanding after-school opportunities for suburban youth, impressing the value of TRIO education programs upon U.S. congress members, and increasing the retention rate of Black community college students. He most recently served as a TRIO Student Support Services advisor at Normandale Community College. 

Kristell Caballero Saucedo was born in Mexico, raised in Minneapolis and graduated from North High School. As a low-income, first-generation immigrant woman, her work is committed to social justice that puts race and kyriarchy, a social system or set of connecting social systems built around domination, oppression and submission, at its nexus.

Kristell holds a B.A. in Political Science and Spanish from St. Olaf College. Most recently, she worked as a New Sector Alliance Fellow at Northside Funders Group where she led and created a racial equity framework and toolkit. As a Fulbright Scholar in Mexico, Kristell focused her research on Afro-Mexican rights. She spent a year volunteering for International Roma Rights in Hungary. Kristell is a salsa dancing enthusiast and Crossfit addict.

The Ron McKinley Philanthropy Fellowship launched as a partnership between the Minnesota Council on Foundations and the Bush Foundation in 2013. It aims to prepare individuals from underrepresented communities for careers in philanthropy. Learn more about the application process.