50 Innovators for 50 Years
As part of our 50th birthday, we’re recognizing 50 contemporary changemakers who are shaping the future – right here, right now. Throughout 2025 and 2026, we’ll unveil a special series of lego-block minifigures modeled after our winners to celebrate their innovative contributions to Minnesota and beyond.
Round Four
Announcement Date: 5.26.2026
Jenna Zangs
Jena Zangs works to build an inclusive tech future where data and artificial intelligence are used strategically based on evidence, not hype, focusing on how purpose-driven AI can help organizations serve their communities.
Martha Rossini Olson
Martha Rossini Olson applied for a stand to sell yogurt and cookies at the State Fair but was told she could only sell cookies. She quickly perfected her recipe and the cookies were a hit. Now her stands use conveyor belt ovens to bake over 1 million cookies every day.
Rima Parikh
Rima Parikh wanted a space where her interest in STEM and her love of reading could be combined, so she opened a bookstore focused on STEM topics that invites readers of all ages to interact with local scientists and connect with fellow thinkers.
Pouya Najmaie
Pouya Najmaie advocates for policies supporting new cooperative, member-owned models of local clean energy that not only support energy equity and affordability but build wealth in disadvantaged communities.
Anthony Taylor
Anthony Taylor knew that many BIPOC communities face barriers to accessing healthy and happy outdoor experiences, so he founded an organization that connects people to nature, building community and positive relationships with the outdoors.
Paul Boswell
Paul Boswell noticed that his kids often use technology without knowing how it works. To help them learn what’s going on inside, he invented games like “Turing Tumble” that translate the abstract concepts of technology into educational fun.
Lindsay Glesener
Lindsay Glesener is an astrophysicist who examines the sun and solar flares. She researches new ways to explore the sun and measure its radiation by sending experimental technologies like x-ray focusing telescopes into orbit on rockets and satellites.
Adrienne Diercks
Adrienne Diercks founded an organization that helps students imagine their future and see the steps to get there through a combination of community experiences in arts and culture and engaging workshops both in class and out in the world.
Matt Barthelemy
Matt Barthelemy started a volunteer organization that invites people of all backgrounds and regions of Minnesota to help out on local farms, providing an environmentally sustainable and educational experience while helping small-scale agriculture thrive.
Parker Jenkins & Efraín Torres
Parker Jenkins & Efraín Torres worked with MRIs in hospitals and realized how costly and difficult they are for people to access. They designed a mobile MRI to reduce costs and wait times for life-saving cancer screenings.
Round Three
Announcement Date: 3.25.2026
Hannah Barnstable
Hannah Barnstable was looking for a healthier, gluten-free cereal for her family and decided to make it herself. She started selling her recipe at the farmers market and before long it was sold nationwide to people who need a gluten-free option or just want to try a healthier breakfast.
Ann Bancroft
Ann Bancroft grew up camping and exploring in Minnesota and later became the first woman to cross the ice to both the North and South Poles. Inspired by her experiences on expeditions, she started a foundation that helps people follow and achieve their dreams.
Andrea Yoch
ANDREA YOCH and her friends wanted to start a soccer team to join the women’s league but couldn’t fund it by themselves. They decided to try a new ownership model and asked the public to buy shares in the project, founding the first community-owned women’s soccer team.
Reyn Guyer
Reyn Guyer, a self-described “serial entrepreneur”, is always excited about new ideas. One idea that he had was to make a game that used people as playing pieces, which became the game of Twister. He also invented Nerf games and created a successful music production company.
Ellen Keane & Cathy Wind
Ellen Keane & Cathy Wind love tap dance and wanted to share it with everyone they could. They helped start a company that teaches tap dance to people of all ages and abilities, building community through the fun, physical, and collaborative activity of dancing together.
Dyani White Hawk
Dyani White Hawk is a multidisciplinary artist connecting traditional Native art forms and materials to modern techniques and aesthetics. Her art reflects her cross-cultural experiences and encourages conversations about representation and intersectionality.
Jazz Hampton
Jazz Hampton noticed that during traffic stops or after a car accident people need legal counsel as soon as possible. He created an app that connects people directly to a lawyer and records interactions to de-escalate the situation and get everyone home safe.
Yasmin Samatar & Firaoli Adam
Yasmin Samatar & Firaoli Adam worked together as respiratory therapists but needed protective equipment that met their hijabi standards and safety needs. They designed a medical-grade disposable hijab that makes hospitals more inclusive and safer for healthcare workers. inventing Magnetic Poetry.
Bin He
Bin He researches neuroengineering and biomedical imaging, helping to develop non-invasive brain-computer interfaces which detect brain signals and turn them into computer commands. His team was able to fly a remote-control helicopter using human thoughts.
Allison Zank
Allison Zank is a phytochemist and feline biology specialist. She realized that her cat was not interested in generic catnip and wondered why. She researched different combinations of botanicals to create a better catnip that works with the various biologies and preferences of cats.
Round Two
Announcement Date: 1.23.2026
Dillon White
Dillon White, a lawyer, screenwriter, and dad, uses social media to talk about the struggles and triumphs of parenting. Through a combination of humor and honesty, he helps other parents feel connected and supported.
María Isa Pérez-Vega
María Isa Pérez-Vega, a State Representative from St. Paul, brings her Puerto-Rican culture and experience in government together through rap. Her music makes the work of the government exciting and accessible to more people.
Paige Dansinger
Paige Dansinger uses virtual reality programs to build interactive and participatory digital museums that empower people to create digital art, follow their curiosity, or learn a new skill, no matter where they are in the world.
Victoria Kyereme
Victoria Kyereme realized that very few of her coworkers in the tech industry looked like her. She decided to try to change that by starting a non-profit that provides girls and young people of color the opportunity to learn coding and develop their tech skills.
Megan Gunnar
Megan Gunnar is a leader in the field of developmental psychology. Her research on childhood stress helped to define and explain the effects of stress on early development, with impacts on many aspects of our lives, including public policy and medical practice.
Art Fry
Art Fry was frustrated that his notes and bookmarks kept falling out of his books. When scientists at 3M developed an adhesive that wasn’t all that sticky, he saw an opportunity to solve his problem. He added the adhesive to a bit of yellow paper and invented the Post-it Note.
Jose & Milena
Jose Cruz & Milena Nunez Garcia knew some reasons kids don’t grow up to be healthy adults are poor nutrition and lack of swimming skills. To reduce these risks, they developed a program that teaches healthy food and gives swimming lessons to families who wouldn’t usually have access to them.
Jian-Ping Wang
Jian-Ping Wang helped invent magnets that contain no rare-earth materials. Most magnets are made from materials extracted from the ground in damaging ways, but this new kind of magnet is made from common materials, greatly reducing its environmental impact.
Jason Dayton
Jason Dayton was in the business of brewing cider when state laws changed and opened up a new market. He and his team were among the first to produce THC-infused beverages, marking the beginning of a new industry in MN.
Jennifer Arndt-Johns
Jennifer Arndt-Johns leads an organization that helps Korean immigrants and people adopted from Korea connect to and preserve their heritage through language, culture, and support programs, building a stronger sense of identity and community.
Round One
Announcement Date: 10.10.2025
David Bowen
David Bowen is an artist who combines robotics and nature to create kinetic art (sculptures that move) by interpreting data from the natural world into movement, sound, or visual representations.
Katy Boyd
Katy Boyd, who is legally blind, discovered that sailing made her feel free and empowered. To share her experience, she started an organization that helps other blind and vision-impaired people learn to sail.
Cory Cove
Cory Cove, a local radio host, invented “The Initials Game” as a fun send-off for his co-host. It was a hit on the radio and was soon turned into a card game that you can play with your friends.
Peggy Flanagan
Peggy Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, is the first Native person elected to be Minnesota’s Lieutenant Governor, and is currently the highest-ranking Native women in an elected executive office nationwide.
Jillian Hiscock
Jillian Hiscock wanted to watch and celebrate women’s sports with her friends but couldn’t find a welcoming space, so she started a new kind of sports bar dedicated exclusively to women’s sports.
Jam & Lewis
Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis were instrumental in creating the “Minneapolis Sound”, a mix of funk, rock, and synth-pop genres that was fundamental to the musical landscape of the 1980s and 90s.
Dave Kapell
Dave Kapell was experiencing writer’s block when he decided to try a new idea. He wrote down some words and stuck them to magnets so he could play around with their order, inventing Magnetic Poetry.
Scott Olson
Scott Olson and his brother Brennan wanted to play hockey all year-round. They developed a new material for inline roller skate wheels and attached them to an ice hockey boot, inventing Rollerblades.
Sean Sherman
Sean Sherman realized that there was no representation of Native cuisine in restaurants, so he started an organization and a restaurant that feature and promote de-colonized Indigenous foodways.
Angela Teeple
Angela Teeple is a scientist who founded Nibi-Clear, a water-testing service for tribal governments that empowers Native communities to initiate improvements to the health of their water, land, and people.
Nominate An Innovator Today.
There are only THREE rounds left!
Nominate a local, living innovator to give them the recognition they deserve.
Inspiring Innovation Across Minnesota
An innovator is an individual who creates a new product, method, or idea. Often, innovation occurs to solve a problem in a specific industry or community.
A simple strike of curiosity and creativity can inspire an innovator and lead to new artistic movements, inventions, discoveries, or business practices.
That’s why we’re tipping our hat to big thinkers on our 50th birthday. If you know someone deserving of the honor, nominate them today.
