Finlandia Foundation National

Betsey Norgard has lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for the past 30 years, where she has been active in the Finnish community. She was a founding member and served as president of the Twin Cities Finlandia Foundation Chapter, as well as working with the Minneapolis-Kuopio Sister City Partnership and the Twin Cities Finnish Network. She danced with the Kisarit Folkdancers and played in the Koivun Kaiku kantele ensemble, performing in both the U.S. and Finland.

Norgard was born in Brooklyn, New York, where her mother’s family settled after immigrating from the Åland Islands. She grew up in upstate New York and moved to Minnesota to study Scandinavian Languages and Literature at the University of Minnesota. In 1984-85, she spent the year as an ASLA Fulbright student in Turku and Åland, while studying literature at Åbo Akademi, and earlier, had participated in a Ministry of Education summer seminar, Svenskt i Finland. Recently, she became a Finnish citizen and now has dual citizenship.

While currently a freelance writer and editor, Norgard spent nearly 20 years at Augsburg College in Minneapolis as director of publications and editor of the college magazine. She received a B.A. from the School of International Service at American University, and an M.A. in Latin American Studies from Indiana University, following a year of teaching English in Brazil.

Betsey and Alan Norgard live on the Iron Range in Minnesota, on a century-old farm in a township settled by Finns.