Liz Miyoung Kaufman
TRACE Collective
Founder & Director
Minneapolis/St.Paul
Liz Miyoung Kaufman is a mother, educator, organizer, and advocate living in the Frogtown neighborhood of St. Paul, MN. She grew up in North Minneapolis and has lived in New York City, London, and San Diego. She identifies as a Korean adoptee, a multiethnic Asian American, and a justice movement-based woman of color, as well as an involuntary immigrant: a person displaced by social, political, and economic factors that have roots in war, colonialism, and other oppressions. She is in the process of reclaiming her history and name. She holds a BA in Sociology with minors in History and Political Science from Barnard College, Columbia University and an MA in English (Language Education) from Hamline University. Liz has been working with adult refugees from many countries, and in her Master's thesis, designed a language-modified, trauma-informed Know Your Rights training for refugees and vulnerable populations. Liz has organized around a variety of issues including Ethnic Studies, overturning wrongful conviction, anti-police brutality work, immigrant rights, youth leadership, and political prisoner campaigns. Currently, she is developing an organization for transracial adoptees that engages in local and national projects at the intersection of arts, cultural work, and transformative healing justice. She is interested in creative and intersectional expressions of racial, environmental, economic, and gender justice, and explorations of how we can be grounded in transformative and visionary personal and collective work, and practice freedom in our daily lives.