Peter Wagenius — Legislative and Political Director
Peter brings robust experience in public policy, political campaigns and community organizing. He worked for 16 years in City of Minneapolis government including as Policy Director for Mayors R.T. Rybak and Betsy Hodges. There, he played a lead role in major initiatives such as establishing the Clean Energy Partnership, closing the Upper Saint Anthony Falls Lock & Dam to stop invasive carp, stopping the burning of coal at the Riverside Power Plant, and championing critical transportation projects such as the 20-year plan for rebuilding parks and streets, Central Corridor (Green Line) LRT, Orange Line Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) along 35W, Riverview Corridor Streetcar and the C-Line and D-Line arterial BRT. Before that he worked for five years for the State Senate Democrats as a writer/researcher, specializing in housing, jobs, energy, community development and transportation. He has also managed political campaigns full time and volunteered for countless candidate campaigns. He graduated from Carleton College with a degree in Political Science and has also worked at an educational theater company teaching social skills for children with learning challenges. Peter and his wife have two young daughters who love being chauffeured around town by their Dad on an amazing longtail cargo bike.
Steve Payne — Campaign Representative
Steve grew up in southern Florida and has been a union organizer for the last decade in Minneapolis, Minnesota. While he developed his passion for the natural world in tropical Florida, it continues today as he explores the wild places of Minnesota. He has dedicated his adult life to fighting economic injustice in the workplace, and is excited to bring the skill sets he learned in the labor movement to the fight for climate justice.
Dominique Diaddigo-Cash — Organizing Representative, Healthy Communities
Dominique Diaddigo-Cash is a lifelong community organizer and restorative practices circle-keeper. As a community educator, he has convened coalitions, led campaigns, supported the growth of young leaders within social justice efforts, and became an “anti-gatekeeper” of sorts — welcoming marginalized identities and experiences into various movements for social change. He has been at the center of various movements including those resisting US military intervention in Latin America and the Caribbean, fighting the implementation of a surveillance program of Black Muslims, and disrupting the school-to-prison pipeline by advocating for an end to punitive policies in public schools. He believes in reaching into the “heart and soul” of the issues, and humanizing the work of social change, and that we should be “organizing around solutions,” not around problems. When we frame our work this way, we are able to realize that the greatest resources are within us, not beyond us, and that our values are seen and felt, and not simply stated.