Our Founding Story
Abdullahi Abdulle Founder & CEO
Abdullahi Abdulle founded Humanize MN to help transform how public agencies engage with and serve the communities most impacted by their decisions. A multilingual transportation planner, military veteran, and public servant, he has built his career on ensuring that those most impacted by public policies are not only heard but respected and meaningfully included. In 2020, he became the first person of color elected to the New Brighton City Council.
His commitment to human-centered public service is rooted in lived experience. After immigrating to the United States as a young person, he navigated complex government systems while relying heavily on public transit, enduring long commutes, and accepting occasional rides from others. Those early experiences revealed how deeply transportation access shapes opportunity, dignity, and quality of life, particularly for immigrant, low-wealth, and historically overburdened communities. They also clarified his professional purpose: to help build public systems that expand opportunity rather than limit it.
Before founding Humanize MN, Abdullahi led major statewide equity efforts at the Minnesota Department of Transportation, including spearheading the Advancing Transportation Equity Initiative. His leadership helped define and institutionalize what transportation equity means in Minnesota, establishing agency-wide commitments, formal definitions, and implementation strategies that continue to shape statewide planning efforts.
Abdullahi founded Humanize MN to expand and deepen this work beyond what traditional government structures allow. The firm partners with state and local governments and community-based organizations to design engagement strategies, facilitate complex public conversations, and support organizational leadership development. Every engagement is grounded in a simple principle: government decisions should reflect the lived experiences of everyone impacted, especially those with the least power.
His leadership has been recognized with honors, including the Community Service Legacy Award, the Rosa Parks Diversity Leadership Award, and the History Makers at Home Award, reflecting his sustained commitment to dignity, equity, and public service.
Through Humanize MN, he continues to work alongside public agencies to ensure that technical expertise is strengthened by humanity and that public systems are designed to serve everyone with dignity.