“I believe that in order to reach a world where everyone is included in the circle of love and belonging, white people in racialised systems need to reconnect with their humanity and begin to see that their systematic ignorance about race isn’t the same as colour blindness. ”

Betsy Hodges was the 47th mayor of Minneapolis. She currently serves as an advisor to cities, mayors, and the non-profit and private sectors about  how to support progressive policy and improve equitable outcomes for Black, Indigenous, and people of color.

Betsy is a Senior Fellow with the Atlantic Fellowship for Racial Equity (AFRE), the Rodel Fellowship, and the Othering and Belonging Institute at the University of California-Berkeley and was a Residential Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics. She is also a Senior Advisor to the Mayors Innovation Project and is on the Board of Advisors for the African American Mayors Association, Metrolab, the MIT Policy Review journal, and the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music.

Betsy has written about politics and race for the New York Times, CNN, USAToday, American Prospect, the Huffington Post, and others.

She and her husband Gary Cunningham live in Washington, DC.