Keynote - Ben Winchester, Extension Professor
Department of Community Development / U-MN
”Reframing Rural”

Ben has been working both in and for small towns across the Midwest for over 25 years. He lives in St. Cloud, Minnesota with his wife and two children. Ben is trained as a Rural Sociologist and works for the University of Minnesota Extension. His conducts applied research on economic, social, and demographic topics surrounding a theme of “rewriting the rural narrative.”  He recently received the International Rural Renewal Research Prize in 2021 for this work.