Since becoming chief executive in 2020, Tuleah Palmer has been taking the Grand Rapids-based foundation in new directions. For many years, Blandin focused its grantmaking on rural broadband. Palmer has shifted its emphasis to rural wealth-building and retention. “We’ve seen two generations of downward mobility” in many small towns and in Native communities, she says. That decline has resulted not only in lower incomes but also in increased behavioral health problems. Palmer is pushing Blandin to support local leaders’ efforts to build community pride, business development, and energy self-reliance, among other objectives.

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