Today on Ready: Leaders to Know, I sit down with Josh Keller, Communications Director at SEIU Minnesota State Council.

Josh grew up in a working-class home in Brooklyn Park, where mutual aid was just what you do. Today, he carries those values into his leadership at the SEIU State Council, where his career has been defined by a single mission: shifting power back to the people.

From his early days in AmeriCorps to his leadership in the labor movement, Josh has remained focused on addressing structural racial and economic disparities by building collective power. In today’s high-stakes political climate, his work reminds us that unions aren’t just about contracts, they are the engine for solidarity and lasting change.

Today on Ready: Leaders to Know, I sit down with Raihl O'Malley, Co-Founder, Director and Principal Consultant to Learning to Transform. Raihl grew up in Northfield, Minnesota, in a family where activism was part of everyday life, his mother protesting nuclear power, his father elected to public office as a teenager. But one of the most formative spaces in his life wasn’t a campaign or a classroom, it was a youth center run entirely by young people. There, Raihl learned what shared leadership looks like, chairing meetings, organizing events, and discovering that those most impacted by decisions should help lead them. That belief has guided his work ever since, from global studies and time living in Nicaragua, to training leaders and communities today. At the core of his work is a simple but radical idea: leadership isn’t about control, it’s about creating space for people to act together.

Today on Ready: Leaders to Know, I sit down with Audua Pugh, a recovered drug user, community organizer, business owner, published author, educator, inspirational speaker and motivator, who is not shy about sharing her story of a 15 year struggle with drug and alcohol use. She is an only child raised by a strong single mother who taught her accountability, self-advocacy, and the power of using your voice for others. Audua’s journey includes extraordinary resilience—surviving cardiac arrest after a rare heart condition, navigating chronic illness, and overcoming breast cancer. When her path changed, so did her purpose.Today, she’s a nonprofit founder, former executive director, caregiver to her mother, and a national ambassador for breast cancer awareness, building healing, justice, and community wherever she goes.