Luisa Trapero lives in St. James, Minnesota. Here, she serves as a committee member for Uniting Cultures/Uniendo Culturas. In addition, she helped found the Minnesota School Board Directors of Color (MNSBDOC) where she currently serves on the board. The goal of this organization is to foster excellence in governance and support effective leadership. MSNSBDOC works to ensure that school board members from diverse communities have the necessary skills to promote high-quality public education for all students. The key focus is to help them recognize the rich cultural and ethnic diversity of Minnesota students and their families.

Luisa has served multiple years as a school board member. Beyond her current experience, she has served in other districts as a school board member. As part of these positions, Luisa worked to ensure that the districts were responsive to community values, beliefs, and priorities. Luisa’s mission is to ensure every student and family feel represented. As the first Latina elected to a citywide office in St. James in 2012, she was able to be a voice for the large Latinx population there. As Luisa continues in her leadership, she serves as a strong voice for building

About the Network

Our Civic Mentorship Network is a network comprised of rural civic leaders who serve as mentors for new women who are pursuing public service. This network provides a coordinated method for aspiring leaders to make the person-to-person connections that give access to resources that are valuable to enduring success. At 100 Rural Women, we find that success in recruiting more rural women to serve in public service leadership roles is essential to keeping our democracy strong.