Bridges Of Hope Hires New Executive Director

Bernadette Foh

Bridges of Hope in Brainerd has named Bernadette Foh as the non-profit’s next executive director.

Foh is replacing former executive director Kassie Heisserer, who resigned effective August 14, 2019. According to a release, Foh, originally from West Africa, is eager to “turn her passion into action” and “turn complete strangers into friends.”

Foh was born the oldest of 13 children in Sierra Leone, West Africa in the coastal city of Freetown. Now a naturalized citizen of the United States, Foh earned an MBA in Health Care Administration and Management from St. Catherine University in St. Paul and completed her first-year coursework in the LL.M. program at the University of Minnesota Law School. She later completed her juris doctorate at the University of Minnesota Law School.

In addition to experience as a paralegal, judicial intern and policy analyst, Foh most recently worked as Chief of Development with Open Cities Health Center in Minneapolis, and as a racial justice, diversity and inclusion consultant for the last 15 years.

“My mission, purpose and values in life align with the mission of Bridges of Hope,” Foh said. “The mission to ‘build bridges of support, anchored in Christ’s love, between families in the lakes area and the community’ is a fundamental piece that speaks personally to me, that calls me to action, that moves me and, most importantly, ties in with my mission and purpose.”

Bridges of Hope is a faith-based, nonprofit organization linking individuals and families to community resources since 2002. In 2018, Bridges of Hope served more than 1,900 households, or roughly 4,700 individuals, in Crow Wing County and surrounding communities. For more information, visit bridgesofhopemn.org.