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Public Affairs

Brain gain replacing brain drain? Rural communities want to attract more residents

The North 103.3 | By Lisa Johnson
Published July 31, 2017 at 1:35 PM CDT
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What if you wanted to stay and work in your tiny Minnesota home town after college - and you could find a job there?

What if you didn't want to wait until retirement to move "up north"?

The U of M Extension and the Humphrey School of Public Affairs plan to find out, with the help of a $500,00 Rural Workforce and Entrepreneur Recruitment and Retention grant from the USDA,  who wants to come to rural Minnesota and why, and how public and private initiatives can support efforts to attract new residents.

Public AffairsNorthland Morning Interviewsrural communitiesEconomic Developmentrural MinnesotaDr. Fernando BurgaHumphrey School of Public AffairsU of M Extension
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Lisa Johnson
Lisa Johnson started her broadcast career anchoring the television news at her high school and spinning country music at KWWK/KOLM Radio in Rochester, Minnesota. She was a reporter and news anchor at KTHI in Fargo, ND (not to mention the host of a children's program called "Lisa's Lane") and a radio reporter and anchor in Moorhead, Bismarck, Wahpeton and Fergus Falls.Since 1991, she has hosted Northland Morning on KUMD. One of the best parts of her job includes "paying it forward" by mentoring upcoming journalists and broadcasters on the student news team that helps produce Northland Morning. She also loves introducing the different people she meets in her job to one another, helping to forge new "community connections" and partnerships.Lisa has amassed a book collection weighing over two tons, and she enjoys reading, photography, volunteering with Animal Allies Humane Society and fantasizing about farmland. She goes to bed at 8pm, long before her daughter, two cats, or three dogs.
See stories by Lisa Johnson