PARTICIPANTS
Lori Henry
The first scene we shot with Lori was back in October 2001, and she and a few girlfriends were putting together a mailing for her reelection campaign to the City Council in Mason City, Iowa. Lori found herself at the center of a heated fight over immigration because of a state-wide program she‘d been assigned to. Things had gotten so out of hand that her reelection flyer had to specify that she was for “welcoming newcomers but not city recruitment of immigrants”.
Lori didn‘t see herself as an immigrants‘ rights advocate in those days, she was a long serving City Council member who also happened to teach English as a second language, but as immigration became a hot topic in Iowa, and she was forced to defend the idea of a “welcoming community” she became a real fighter, dramatically changing course in life.
These days Lori lives in Austin, Minnesota where she is the Diversity Coordinator for the public school system. She loves her new calling in life.
Lori is also a featured blogger on How Democracy Works Now.
