Meet April Fournier

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful April Fournier a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi April, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

I think a lot of my resilience comes from my mom. My mother was taken from the Navajo reservation when she was four years old and given to a white couple to adopt instead of being cared for by her community. Despite being ripped from her community and culture and being forced to fit a new mold at such a young age, she grew up always looking at what is possible instead of what cannot be done. She is a convener, not someone who seeks the spotlight or recognition, but works so incredibly effectively behind the scenes to build relationships and make connections. Her earliest years were difficult, but she still has the ability to be patient, kind, and supportive to everyone she meets. Whenever I am facing a difficult situation, decision or encounter I remember to take a breath like she taught me and try to work towards a solution instead of focusing too long on the problem and what’s not working. And if it doesn’t work, we keep trying and keep working until it does.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I became a mom at 21, it was a surprise for sure, but felt like that was the first step in my grownup life. I quickly found a job that was Monday through Friday to accommodate our childcare options and then started to learn more about the corporate workplace and found a love for coaching and training. After nearly a decade in this world our lives changed when we welcomed our twins in 2008. Doubling our kid count in one shot was both exciting and terrifying. As parents we were now outnumbered. But we made it work and things continued quietly until their second birthday well child visit. The pediatrician shared his concerns that one of our twins was showing a significant number of flags for autism. I am still surprised at how calm we were and how we just got to work. We researched, we connected with the community and then we got him the early intervention supports that he needed. I had to become an expert in child development, early intervention, special education law, local services advocacy and local school policy. But we got him the services he needed and to watch the transformation our little boy underwent by having the right supports in place, I was inspired to change my career from business to early intervention.
I went back to school, got my master’s degree in education with a concentration in early childhood special education and changed careers. I worked in community and residential behavioral health services, I led early childhood special education classrooms, I case managed, I worked in pediatric practices and I coached parents. This was all incredibly fulfilling and rewarding as I provided a service that was such a fight for us to have. But I knew I still needed something. Part of me still felt unfulfilled.
Then in 2016 I watched the appointments of the president’s new cabinet and this included a secretary of education appointment by someone who had never been a teacher, did not believe in public school and had zero understanding of special education law and regulation. I yelled at the C-SPAN hearings like I was watching a Patriots football game. And then like before, when our son was diagnosed, I got to work. I researched how to run for office, because even though I couldn’t immediate be the Secretary of Education, I could start locally and work on supporting our schools and our city budgets. And so in 2020, right as the pandemic hit, I ran for office. And even though I was outspent nearly 4:1, ran against an incumbent endorsed by our council and state representatives, I won and won convincingly. And now I am on my second term in office as the first Native American woman to serve on our city council. And just like when I wanted to help other parents navigate a system that wasn’t designed for us, I wanted to help other Native American leaders navigate a political system built to exclude us.
For the past 2 and half years I have worked with organizations to provide support, advocacy, education and elevation of Native American leaders to learn how to run for office, get involved at the local, state and federal level in organizing and policy, and build their own leadership skills to fight on behalf of their community. It feels like every stage has built the skills, knowledge and connection to lead me to the next.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I think the first skill that was so important to this journey was being service-oriented. Not just serving others, but really taking time, space and energy to make a human connection, fully and actively listen and hold the space needed to understand how you can help. So often we’re transactional in our interactions, but when we take the time to connect with others we gain so much ourselves.

I think the second skill I learned was customer service, It seems silly that you would learn an important life skill in a call center, but it really stuck with me. You could have someone call and it’s the wrong number, you have a choice. You can tell them “wrong number, sorry” and hang up. Or you can take the time to listen and understand where they were trying to get and then help them make the right connection. The way this pays forward is really something.

The third most important thing I learned is that we need to find what we love and make a life out of that. Then our work is not work, it’s just a daily expression of love, passion and energy. And each day we get to do it again. Others can see this and it’s inspiring and infectious.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

One thing that I know as a Native American woman in elected office is that there are not enough of us and we have imperfect methods of staying connected, uplifting each other, protecting each other, and supporting each other in our journeys. I’m looking for others who are committed to working towards more visibility, representation, education, protection and supports to ensure that we are the firsts, but not the lasts. We need so many community investments to make sure that this power building continues.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/councilorAF
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aprilfournier207/
• Twitter: https://x.com/portlandfor