Alumni Achievement Award

Julie Paulsen Keller ’88 is the president of the Mama Ada Foundation, a nonprofit she co-founded in 2008 to provide economic empowerment opportunities to people living in Kenya. In its first year, the organization gave tuition funds to five students and provided seeds to several farmers. In 2023 the organization awarded scholarships to 291 students to attend high school or college. This year it also served 150 farm families through an Agriculture Pilot Project that provided seeds and fertilizer, as well as agricultural training.  

After majoring in English at St. Olaf, Keller went on to study at the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, earning her master’s degree with an emphasis in nonprofit and public management and social policy.  

Early on, Keller worked in several nonprofit capacities, including Big Brothers/Big Sisters and a center for people with disabilities. She then worked for Head Start at the Minnesota Department of Education. She has also done consulting work for nonprofit and government entities, including grant writing, program evaluation, and strategic planning.