Rural Assembly Everywhere, our annual virtual gathering, is back July 23 with a compelling lineup of rural authors, leaders, musicians, and artists. Read about our featured guests below and register now to hear from them on July 23.
In Conversation: Mary Annette Pember & Shirley Sneve
Journalist and award-winning author Mary Annette Pember will discuss her book, Medicine River: A Story of Survival and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools.
Pember is a citizen of the Red Cliff Band of Wisconsin Ojibwe. She is currently national correspondent for ICT News, formerly Indian Country Today, and has worked as an independent journalist focusing on Native American issues since 2000. Pember is the recipient of the Clarion Award, several Associated Press awards, and the Medill Milestone Achievement Award.
Shirley Sneve is the senior producer for the ICT Newscast, a program of IndiJ Public Media. A member of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska, Sneve is also affiliated with the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. She directed Vision Maker Media from 2004-2019, which is the largest US funder of Indigenous documentary film projects for public broadcasting. She lives in Lincoln, Nebraska and serves on the boards of The Circle (Minneapolis, MN) The Center for Rural Strategies (Whitesburg, KY) and Arts Extension Institute (Amherst, MA)
Read more about this conversation.
A Conversation on Rural Philanthropy and Funding with Erin Borla and Ash Hanson
We know that rural folks are used to doing more with less, but that doesn’t mean we deserve less to begin with. Hear from Erin Borla, Executive Director and Trustee of the Roundhouse Foundation, and Ash Hanson, Chief Creative Officer at Department of Public Transformation, as they discuss what it looks like to meaningfully fund rural for the long haul. They’ll discuss what it looks like when rural seems to be a ‘hot topic’ but funding gaps continue to exist and what role philanthropy can play in closing those gaps.
Erin Borla (she/her) is an Oregonian— born and raised in Central Oregon and the granddaughter of Oregon’s own tough mother, Gert Boyle of Columbia Sportswear. For 20 years, she has worked with and for nonprofit organizations that support rural communities with innovative economic strategies. Her dedication to supporting rural spaces through listening, collaborating and open and honest sharing of ideas helps her elevate community partners throughout her work.
Borla holds a bachelor’s degree in agricultural sciences from Oregon State University and a master of tourism administration degree from The George Washington University. She completed her professional certificate in Tribal relations from Portland State University’s Mark O. Hatfield School of Government in 2022 and was recently announced as a Fellow for the National Center for Family Philanthropy.
The Roundhouse Foundation, founded by Borla’s mother, artist Kathy Deggendorfer, supports creative solutions across rural communities in Oregon including the nine federally recognized Tribes and 54 historic bands of Native communities that originally called this region home. The Foundation funds at the intersection of their four programmatic areas: arts and culture, environmental stewardship, education and social services.
Ashley Hanson (she/her) has 15 years of experience working with rural communities to activate stories, connect neighbors, and exercise collective imagination. She is a member of the Center for Performance and Civic Practice Leadership Circle and she was an Artist-in-Residence in both the Planning Department at the City of Minneapolis and with the Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership, where she employed creative community engagement strategies for equitable participation in urban and rural planning and development processes. Previously, she was the Program Director for the Minnesota Theater Alliance—where she managed statewide regional networks and resource sharing—and the Program Director for Public Art Saint Paul—where she produced large-scale participatory public art events and projects, including the Saint Paul City Artist-in-Residence program. In addition to her work with DoPT, she is the founder of PlaceBase Productions, a theater company that creates original, site-specific musicals celebrating small-town life. She holds an MA in Applied Theater with a focus on Rural Community Development, and she was named an Obama Foundation Fellow and a Bush Fellow for her work with rural communities.
Read more about this conversation.
Artist & Author Nikiko Masumoto
Nikiko Masumoto (she/her) will read her children’s book, Every Peach is A Story that she co-wrote with her father, David Mas Masumoto. Nikiko Masumoto is an organic farmer and artist. She is Yonsei, fourth-generation Japanese American, and stewards the same soil her great-grandparents worked in California where Masumoto Family Farm grows organic peaches, nectarines, apricots and grapes for raisins.
Poetry by Angel Ballew
Angel Ballew is a poet, agribusiness coach and consultant, and co-owner/manager of Ballew Farms in Richmond, KY. Angel’s piece The Dirt Road was published in Testament: A Rural Anthology, from Backwoods Literaray Press, 2025.
Music from Holiday Friends
Holiday Friends is an indie rock band from Astoria, OR. The four bandmates, Scott Fagerland, Jon Fagerland, Joey Ficken, and Zack O’connor live on the coast where they’ve built out their own studio to self-produce upbeat, and layered pop.
Stay tuned for more information about other sessions!
