Meet Alumni Board President Abaki Beck ’15

What do you do when you’re not volunteering for Mac?

I’m a public health PhD student at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, and a writer. I research how arrest and incarceration impact health, particularly in Native American communities. A lot of my time is also spent organizing with the new graduate labor union at the U. The union is negotiating our first contract and I was elected to serve on the bargaining committee to represent public health graduate workers—so this year has been really busy for me in more ways than one!

When did you join the Alumni Board and what have you worked on?

I first learned about the Alumni Board after winning the Young Alumni Award in 2020, and I joined the Alumni Board in 2021. I’ve planned virtual educational events for alumni, selected Alumni Award winners, and volunteered at Reunion and Mac Fest.

One of my favorite projects was helping to plan a virtual event on racial justice organizing and community safety in the Twin Cities. The speakers included Sami Banat ‘24, a student who served on Mayor Carter’s Community-First Public Safety Commission in 2020 to re-envision emergency response in St Paul; Educational Studies Department Professor Brian Lozenski; and SooJin Pate, an amazing local educator, writer, and DEI consultant, whom I took classes from when I was a student.

I’ve also worked with Macalester staff outside of my direct role on the Alumni Board. For example, I helped create a page on the Admissions website highlighting the Macalester Indigenous community. And I’m currently serving on a committee working to reimagine how Macalester honors the Dakota land where Macalester’s campus currently resides.

What are your goals for the Alumni Board?

In general, my goal for the Alumni Board is to help provide great spaces for connection, learning, and support to connect alumni to each other, current students, and the school. Mac has a great Alumni Engagement office and super dedicated staff, so a lot of our work is supporting the great work they’re already doing.

Since last year, we’ve been working to provide more support for very recent alumni who experienced Macalester during the pandemic. They had a totally different academic and social experience than a lot of other alumni and may have a different relationship with the Mac community.

What Mac event are you most looking forward to this year?

Reunion! I’ve volunteered at Reunion for a few years in my capacity on the Alumni Board, but the 2025 Reunion will also be my ten-year reunion. Because my five-year reunion happened the first year of the pandemic, this will be my first in-person Reunion. I’m excited to see people, especially folks who may not have visited Minnesota or Macalester since they graduated!

What’s most rewarding to you about leading the Alumni Board?

The main thing I love about serving on the Alumni Board is meeting people. I’ve been able to meet and become friends with alumni from other generations that I normally wouldn’t be able to meet. I also love staying in touch with the college and learning what students today are passionate about, like the current activism around Palestine. In every era of history, student organizing and activism has changed not only conversations and perspectives but policy, and it’s important for us to continue to look to and support student leaders.