Meet Leah Lemm
Leah Lemm is a senior editor at MPR News, leading the Native News initiative which highlights stories and issues important to Native American communities in Minnesota and beyond. Leah is a citizen of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe.
Leah has been working in public media since 2008. She got her start at MPR as a master control specialist in the International Control Center.
After seven years with MPR, Leah left to immerse herself in sharing stories from Native people and communities as a freelance radio/podcast reporter and host. Leah returned to the organization in August 2023 as a member of the Native News team with MPR News.
In 2024, Leah released the documentary Finding Manoomin: A Search for the Spirit of Wild Rice, which follows her journey to connect with her cultural roots through the tradition of wild rice harvesting. The documentary and its accompanying audio documentary aired on MPR News and Twin Cities PBS during Native American Heritage Month.
Leah has a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She also obtained a professional diploma in music production and engineering from Berklee College of Music. Additionally, Leah completed a master’s degree in creative writing from the Institute of American Indian Arts.
She lives with her family in a log home along the Prairie River in Grand Rapids. To learn more about Leah Lemm, watch/listen to her TEDx Talk: Echos of empowerment: Amplifying Native voices while finding my own.
Recent Contributions
- Documentary: Connecting with my Ojibwe heritage by learning to harvest wild rice
- ’Finding Manoomin: A Search for the Spirit of Wild Rice’
- Bassett Creek oral history project will be first gathering of suburban Indigenous stories in U.S.
- Red Lake Nation College expands to Minneapolis, students feel sense of home
- U’s Center of American Indian and Minority Health expands to Minneapolis campus
- In Ojibwe tradition, snow on the ground means it’s sacred storytelling season
- Native American Heritage Month is ending. Here's how our Native News team celebrated
- Wayne Ducheneaux II is stepping down from Native Governance Center. Here's a look at his legacy
- Why Minnesota musician Annie Humphrey's new album is like nothing she's released before
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