Our Leadership and Healers
Patricia Brown
Founder &
Executive Director
Dr. Fry is a native of Chicago, Illinois, who worked on many college and university campuses before making the decision to focus on post-secondary preparation at the secondary level.
In 2012, she founded IGF out of the need to support youth from foster care. For three years IGF co-created with youth, a safe space for fostering the voice of youth of color to express themselves and support one another. In 2015, IGF focused their work on helping youth heal from trauma, as so many of our youth and workshop participants needed this support. Since then IGF, has been a youth-influenced in creating safe spaces and healing opportunities for over 800 youth of color. The leadership team has provided workshops and other healing opportunities for over 25,000 participants.
In 2022, IGF opened the Black Youth Healing Center in the Frogtown area of Saint Paul. This center was co-developed and designed with youth of color for youth of color. It is the goal of IGF to make this space into a community space facilitated by youth where Black culture and healing is cultivated and shared intergenerationally as the inheritance that it is and shall continue to be. Dr. Fry is the Executive Director and Founder of Irreducible Grace Foundation and the Black Youth Healing Arts Center.
Director of Programming and Engagement
For 30 years, Patricia Brown has participated in the Twin Cities arts community as a dancer, instructor, choreographer, performer, teaching artist, and movement coach. At times traditional, at times fusion, her style is rooted in African diasporic dance. She has been a teaching artist with the VocalEssence WITNESS School Program for 25 years, director of the Brown Spirit Dance Ensemble for 15 years, and is the new Director of Programming and Engagement at the Black Youth Healing Arts Center. She was a faculty member in the Theater and Dance Department at Macalester College for 25 years, an adjunct faculty member in the Dance Department at the University of Minnesota for 22 years, and an instructor for Penumbra Theatre's Summer Institute for 26 years. Her work has been seen on many local and national stages. She has received numerous awards for teaching, performing, and creating choreography for dancers, professional theater, and choirs. Patricia was the founder, director, choreographer, and costumer for The Spirit of Ashe' Performing Arts Troupe, a member of The Circle of Choice Ensemble, The Dancers and Drummers of Langa, Nimely Pan African Dance Company, Burundi African Dance Company, and a guest performer with Sundance Productions Multiple Performing Arts Company.
Tara Reddinger-Adams
Director of
Operations
Tara is a first-generation college student whose unique background blends her life experiences with a Bachelor of Arts and Master’s of Education in Youth Development Leadership, both from the University of Minnesota.
Tara has a passion for working with students and providing them opportunities to engage in new experiences. During her time working in K-12 public education she drew upon her personal experiences as a student who was provided the opportunity to participate in after-school activities despite economic hardship, and successfully secured grant funding to offer free and low-cost programming for youth.
Tara went on to work in Saint Paul Public Schools implementing AVID before transitioning to co-leading the curriculum writing team for the middle school advisory curriculum Foundations.
In 2019, Tara joined IGF, and is now the Director of Operations, working closely with the IGF grant writing team, accountants, and IT contractors.
Isiah
Dennis
Coordinator of Community Engagement
Isiah Dennis is a Minister, Theologian, and Youth Worker hailing from the historic Rondo neighborhood of Saint Paul, MN. He holds a Master of Divinity from Luther Seminary, a Bachelor of Science in Youth Studies with a minor in African/African American Studies, and a Master of Education in Youth Development and Leadership from the University of Minnesota. Isiah is dedicated to creating safe environments where youth of color can thrive. His focus includes mentorship, life skills, and self-care practices to help young people find their voices.
Grounded in community advocacy and youth empowerment, Isiah draws inspiration from the wisdom of bell hooks:
"If we can't recognize the truth, then it cannot liberate us from untruth. To know the truth is to prepare for it, for it is not mainly reflection and theory. Truth is divine action entering our lives and creating the human action of liberation." – bell hooks
Our Leadership
Dr. Darlene Fry
Natalia Davis
Artistic
Coordinator
Natalia Gaston-Davis is a graduate of Clark Atlanta University with a bachelor's degree in Mass Media Arts. She has been the Artistic Coordinator for Irreducible Grace Foundation since 2014.
Her passions are youth empowerment, theater, and mind body medicine. This has led her to provide life skills programs and housing for youth transitioning to adulthood. She has been cast in many acting roles, including August Wilson’s “Piano Lesson” at the historic Penumbra Theater. She has also been studying mind-body medicine with local and national healers since 2015. She is currently working to become a certified practitioner with the National Center for Mind-Body Medicine.
Natalia initiated the idea to launch “IGF Kids”, a program to teach health and wellness skills to elementary school students. She has facilitated hundreds of workshops focused on fostering youth voice, health, and wellness, as well as professional development for teachers and staff. She is currently working as a breathing teacher at Justice Alan Page Elementary School serving over 800 students per year.
Natalia is serving her community as a First Public Safety Commission member for the city of Saint Paul. Natalia truly believes that breathing practices are the keys to healing our community.
Jan
Mandell
Program
Coordinator
Jan works with youth of color to define programming focused on arts and healing that aligns with the IGF mission. She also mentors young people into leadership positions and co-creates youth-driven pop-up performances with poetry and healing tools as outreach and community engagement.
Jan is a teacher, artist, and activist, her passion is fostering youth voice through the arts. She taught theater for nearly 40 years at Saint Paul Central High School, where she worked in partnership with young people to devise original social justice plays that toured locally and statewide. Jan retired in 2015 from Saint Paul schools after two years serving as district arts leadership and one year with the district racial equity team. In addition, Jan was a professor at the University Of Minnesota in the Youth Studies department, where she taught “Theatre Methods for Youth Workers and Educators” for over 30 years, mentoring youth workers and teachers at the college level. She retired in 2022.
Jan earned degrees in History, Art, and Education; however, she credits 40 years within the Rondo community in Saint Paul as her higher education as she learned about race, history, and culture that was absent from her formal education. Her decades of connection with the community often serves as the source and the power of the programming at BYHAC. She integrates anti-racism practices into her personal and professional life.
Board of Directors
Our volunteer Board of Directors supports our work and young people by sharing their extensive knowledge, resources, and advocacy.
Gold Team
The IGF Gold Team facilitates workshops across the country for children through adults. Our workshop team is highly trained by local and national healers of color in Mind-Body Medicine, Somatic Healing, Radical Self-Care, and other practices.
Our Healers
Our "Healers" are national and international experts in Mind-Body Medicine, Somatic Abolitionism, Radical Self-Care, Healing Justice, and healing from trauma. We thank each of our Healers for sharing their knowledge with and training our Gold (workshop) Team members in these vital practices.
Dr. Joi Lewis
Dr. Joi Lewis promotes transformation and liberation of self through radical self-care and radical hospitality.
Lora Matz
Lora Matz, MS, LICSW is a psychotherapist, lecturer and writer who works in the field of mind-body Medicine and transpersonal development.
Resmaa Menakem
Resmaa Menakem, MSW, LICSW, S.E.P. is New York Times Best-Selling author and trauma specialist who helps people, communities, and organizations find strength in healing that is holistic and resilient.
Rebeka Ndosi
Rebeka Ndosi, M.S., L.Ac., is a board licensed acupuncturist and herbalist, teacher of child, adult and family yoga & meditation, a certified community coach in healing justice and a certified soul answer healer.
