Kristi Rudelius-Palmer

Kristi Rudelius Palmer

Kristi Rudelius-Palmer is a Human Rights Education specialist who collaborates with human rights advocates, educators, and young people to create innovative programs and models of human rights teaching, dialogue, civic engagement, service learning, and reflection in classrooms and communities throughout Minnesota, the United States, and globally. She is the co-founder of Human Rights Educators USA and the University and College Consortium for Human Rights Education.

During her tenure at the University of Minnesota School of Law, Kristi served as Co-Director of the University of Minnesota Human Rights Center from 1989-2016 and as Director of the Humphrey Fellowship Program from 2003-2016. To advance human rights education for educators, she coordinated and edited the Human Rights Education Series, published by the University of Minnesota Human Rights Resource Center. She recently (2023) completed her Ph.D. defense on “Stories as Theories” Illuminating Human Rights Education Through the Narratives of Human Rights Educators at the University of Minnesota.

In addition to teaching courses on human rights education, rule of law, and leadership at universities, she presents at international, national, regional, and local conferences on Human Rights Education. Dr. Rudelius-Palmer was awarded the University of Minnesota Outstanding Community Service Award (2003), received the first Edward O’Brien Award for Human Rights Education (2015), and worked as a Fulbright Specialist on Advancing Human Rights in Education with the Faculty of Education and the Diversity team at the University of Iceland in 2023.