Mary Oberg

Mary Oberg

The National Urban Alliance mourns the death of Mary Oberg, our “Champion for Change” in Minnesota, and dedicates our website in her memory.

Mary brought the NUA to Minnesota in 2001, and worked tirelessly in implementation. For the last few years she had been our Minnesota Project Director.

Mary clearly understood how to make a difference for the thousands of children, and hundreds of educators in Minnesota. Her dedication to the social justice mission we all serve was unfailing.

We will miss her sense of humor and the love she has for our organization. We will miss her indomitable leadership and her love of life. We will miss the embrace she projected for those she came to know and love.

Some people touch others emotionally in ways that are not always immediately and overtly recognized and identified. Mary, in her quiet yet very strong intellectual and knowing way, pushed hard with determination that never faltered. She didn’t fit the idea of a flamboyant figure, demanding justice and equity. Instead, she was a calm and cool fighter who, behind the scenes, was taking on political battles that few of us knew about – all to keep the work flowing. All of us whose lives she touched will work our hardest and try our best to honor Mary and keep her dreams of a fair and equitable nation alive.