Emily Anne Tuttle

She attended Harvard on a Bush Foundation Fellowship (she’s also a University of Minnesota Outstanding Alumnus), and is the first DFL woman ever elected to the Minnesota State Senate. She served as a Hennepin County commissioner, and advised former governor Jesse Ventura.

“I’m really so diffused,” she says. “I’m probably more effective that way because focus has never been my strong point. Integration is—I can be a catalyst because I’m spread all over. I can bring groups and ideas together. ”

Tuttle’s made a lifetime of bringing varied interests together, one organization at a time. In 1972, she helped found the Women’s Political Caucus, a national movement to gather women to enact the Equal Rights Amendment. She served on the board of Planned Parenthood Minnesota/South Dakota. “I’d love to see the Equal Rights Amendment, because yearly, I see this is more critical,” she says. “We’re moving backward. I’m fortunate to have children and grandchildren, and I’d like to see them live in a safe, secure world. And I’d like to impact that.”

Once as the president and now as an honorary board member, Tuttle supports the Minnesota International Center. In a world rapidly moving toward globalization, the center encourages international students to come here and the sharing of information across cultures. Her goals include raising awareness of the group—“especially to legislators”—and increasing membership in order to foster positive relationships to improve the world.

“There’s not a day I don’t learn something new,” says Tuttle. “I meet people, I get access. It’s a sense of really making a difference. It gives you, to some degree, a soapbox.”