Drake Burke (they/them)
I am a Minnesota-based campaign strategist, educator, and published policy researcher who specializes in building systems from scratch — most recently as the sole author of a 2026 statewide primary campaign's complete strategic, communications, and operating architecture. My decade and a half of work centers on translating complex policy into plain language and designing for people the default product ignores, with a decorated record in accessibility and disability advocacy. I work from the principle that what looks like individual struggle is often a design problem.
The Path to Strategy
I’m a campaign strategist, educator, and policy researcher based in Minnesota. Right now, I’m the strategist for a 2026 statewide primary campaign, where I designed the full strategic, communications, and operating architecture from scratch — strategy and win conditions, message system, public platform, polling instrument, and weekly operating system.
Before campaigns, I spent more than a decade teaching across secondary, college, and community settings. I’ve taught history, English, and social studies in Minnesota schools and in China; supported college history courses as a graduate assistant; and led community education spaces from disabled adult writing workshops to youth chess and STEM camps.
Alongside that work, I’ve done public-facing education and advocacy: critical policy analysis of Minnesota’s READ Act, equity and disability trainings, and facilitation on queer and trans experience, protest movements, and liberatory teaching. Across all of it, the throughline is the same: translate complex systems into plain language, design operations that respect real human limits, and build spaces where people can act together instead of alone.
Education & Background
MS: Teaching & Learning
Minnesota State University, Mankato (2025)
Pedagogy Synthesis: Universal Design for Learning (UDL) | Culturally Sustaining Pluralism (CSP)| Transparency in Learning & Teaching (TILT)
Capstone: Reading Between the Lines: Minnesota’s 2023 READ Act
Graduate History Certificate
Minnesota State University, Mankato (2021)
Specialty: Human Rights & Decolonial Movements
Focus: American Revolution, Minnesota Political History
Capstone: Teaching Against the Grain: College History Courses
Self-led Graduate Internship: 2020 MN No Justice No Peace Project
BA: History & Social Studies
emidji State University (2015)
Focus: Matrix of Coloniality, American Revolution, US Hegemonic Post-WWII International Political Order.
Core Expertise
I'm a campaign strategist and educator who builds things from nothing. Over the past year I was the sole author of a Minnesota statewide primary campaign's entire architecture—strategy and win conditions, message system, public platform, polling instrument, and a weekly operating system—built from scratch, under real-time and money constraints, with no playbook handed down. That's the mode I run well in, and it's where I do my best work.
- Selected Honors & Awards:
- 2-year Graduate Assistantship—MNSU
- 1-year Undergraduate Assistantship—Bemidji State University
- Dewitt Dunham History Award – Bemidji State University
- Geography Department Award – Bemidji State University
- Annie B Henry Educator of Diversity Award – Bemidji State University
- Paul Mittelstadt LGBT Award – Minnesota State University, Mankato
- KSP Award for Excellence in Social-Justice Education – MNSU
- Sponberg Scholarship for Promoting Peace – MNSU
Selected Honors & Awards
Scholarly & Professional Certifications
Scholarly Certifications
- Assessment of Student Learning (with Dr. Shaheen Ahmed, Spring 2021)
- Creating Interactive Online Lectures (with Dr. Elizabeth Harsma, Spring 2021)
- Engaging Learners with Discussions (with Dr. Elizabeth Harsma, Spring 2021)
- Open Access, Open Pedagogy, and Open Education (with Dr. Carrie Miller, Spring 2021)
- Program Level Assessment (with Dr. Shaheen Ahmed, Spring 2021)
- Transparency in Learning and Teaching Methods (with Dr. Elizabeth Harsma, Spring 2021)
Professional Certifications
- 3-Day Dialectical Behavior Therapy Certification Training (with Lane Pederson, Spring 2024)
- Certified Peer Recovery Support Specialist (NCPRSS) (with Zachary Salo at Refocus Recovery, Spring 2024)
- Youth Mental Health First Aid (with Washburn Center for Children, Spring 2024)
- Trauma-Informed Coach (with The Centre for Healing, Summer 2023)
Partners in Policymaking® 43
Leadership training program for adults with disabilities and family members, created by the Minnesota Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities. Partners teaches leadership skills and how to build effective relationships with elected officials and policymakers who shape disability services.
This training informs how I design disability-forward campaign strategy and policy messaging.
- Bemidji State University (2015) Minors:
- Geography: Geospatial analysis & human systems
- Social Studies Ed: Civic pedagogy
- U.S. History: American Revolution, WWII, Matrix of Coloniality
- Associate of Arts Degree:
- Normandale Community College (2013)
- World History
- Focus: Religions & comparative governance
Foundation & Minors
Connect with Drake
Campaigns, advocacy organizations, unions, schools, and civic groups: I’m available for strategy, message, training, curriculum design, policy analysis, and writing. Selected work samples are available on request; some campaign materials stay internal until after the primary.
Access note: Anything on this site is available in plain language, large print, or another format — just ask.