"That’s a very British phrase, we don't say that over here"

What Steven asked Adriana Temali, Education Manager at, checks notes, the League of Minnesota Cities, and former MidKent College diversity advisor

Adriana Temali is the former programme manager for MidKent College’s Talent Development Scheme and their former diversity advisor. She now resides in her home state of Minnesota in the US, serving as Education Manager for the League of Minnesota Cities. Steven spoke to Adriana via Zoom to discuss how Minnesota compares to Medway, what 2024 Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz is like, and whether, as some claim, equality and diversity are what’s wrong with the modern world.

Adriana Temali

How would you describe America right now to a British person?
Gosh. I’m going to start this by saying I work in a quasi-political environment. I work with local governments in the state where I live, which is Minnesota. There are 855 municipalities that, in my role, I help support through training them on good governance. We don't get into the politics of it. That doesn't mean that we don't hear about the politics, of course, but think of the things that your local government in Medway does: Keep the roads drivable, make sure that people can have clean water running into their house and that they're sanitary systems take the dirty water away, and make sure that there's basic services at a city level. Within that, I would say that people are very aligned and jointly both pleased and frustrated by how the government is operating. Most things on those basic levels are getting done in most places, and the people who are running for local office are doing so because they genuinely want to improve where they live. I would say the federal government level of America is a really different situation. Most people, I think are frustrated on some level about things that are either happening or not happening. It's a pretty divided time at that federal level.

You've been back in America for 10 years. It would be fair to say that has been an interesting period of time.
Yeah (laughs). We moved back in June of 2015, and obviously, the next year was a big year for voting. June of 2016 was the Brexit vote and then November of 2016 was the election of Donald Trump the first time. That was a big year.

What is your official occupation?
I work for a governmental non-profit organization that supports cities in the state of Minnesota, and I am their Learning Manager. I design conferences and workshops in asynchronous and synchronous learning for mayors, city council members and city administrators throughout the state of Minnesota.

What additional roles, paid or unpaid, do you do?
I don't really have any additional roles at the moment. I am a mom to an almost 13-year-old boy. That keeps me pretty busy. I have previously been on the council for the library board in my local municipality. My term ended, and I stepped away from that, but I'm really passionate about libraries. I try to occasionally volunteer, but it's not a regular gig right now.

Library boards in America can get contentious over banning books. Did you have any situations like that?
We didn’t. It was more about funding. We would combine private and public funds to update the building. It wasn't serving its purpose anymore, and it needed to be remodelled. The way that people use libraries is really different than 100 years ago and there's a mixture of it. People talk about that ‘third space’. We have our work, we have our home. Right now, often those are the same place, and where's that extra space that we can go to feel comfortable and chill and hang out. We were trying to create that third space in a library setting for people to access for free and do more cosy meeting room things.

Is there anywhere in Minnesota that compares to Medway?
Yeah, that's a really great question. I was thinking about Medway and how beautiful it is this time of year. I loved Rochester High Street at Christmas. There's really nowhere as beautiful as that. I will say when we moved back to Minnesota in 2015, I had anticipated we would move to Minneapolis, which is where I grew up. It's the biggest city here in Minnesota. It's very much metropolitan. There's a lot newer infrastructure there and museums and theatres and a little bit of a bigger city. We actually ended up in a smaller town that is the birthplace of Minnesota and goes back to the 1800s. It's an old logging and milling town. It's right on the river between Minnesota and Wisconsin and it's got a bit of an English high street feel to it. We have a main street that doesn't allow for the chain stores. It's protected by small independent entrepreneur businesses. It's got a lot of the events that have a little bit of a feel similar to the various things that Medway puts on throughout the year. I would actually say that I live in an area that does feel charming and quaint and connected in the same way that Medway always did.