Anna Claussen is the founder of Voices for Rural Resilience, a collective of rural connectors facilitating the social change necessary to protect and heal our natural world; empower rural communities to engage in efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change; and advance inclusive climate change policies. A landscape architect by training, Anna bridges years of practice in urban design and planning with a life deeply rooted on her family’s active Minnesota farm. She was recently chosen as a 2017-18 Nathan Cummings Foundation Fellow. Prior, Anna was the Director of Rural Strategies at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), a non-profit working locally and globally pursuing cutting edge solutions that benefit family farmers, rural communities, and the planet. Over the last two decades, Anna has focused on creating resilient communities through the design and vision of alternative land-use plans; by advancing market solutions within the emerging bio-based economy; by sitting in tough spaces, wrestling with problems, and believing in the humanity of all people. Anna advises a number of organizations working on rural sustainability issues, including: Advisor to the National Rural Assembly, Advisor to Focus Climate Gap Year, Advisor to Rural Generation, Board Director for Art of the Rural and Department of Public Transformation and alumni of the Minnesota Agriculture and Rural Leadership program. Anna has a Bachelor of Arts in Geography and Studio Arts from Gustavus Adolphus College and a Master in Landscape Architecture from the University of Minnesota. She’s grounded in Minnesota, where she and her husband and their two young children call home.
Anna Claussen
