Loraine Jensen is the founder of the American Association for Runic Studies, and currently serves as its president. While living in rural Minnesota, she was exposed to runes through the presence of the Kensington Runestone near her home town of Alexandria. As the Principal Consultant for Jensen Consulting, founded in 1995, she has assisted nonprofit organizations in grant writing, strategic planning and board development. One of her earliest clients was the Kensington Runestone Park Foundation. She has developed extensive networks on runic research, including with Uppsala University in Sweden and the Smithsonian Institution. Those relationships and her expertise as a professional educator in 2020 resulted in her selection for a prestigious Fulbright Specialist appointment to study runes in Sweden on a project titled “Viking Age Runic Studies: Education and Outreach.” Loraine holds a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Nebraska and is licensed as an elementary and special education teacher. She also holds a Master’s of Public Affairs through the Executive Program at the Humphrey School at the University of Minnesota. That program was funded through a Bush Foundation leadership fellowship that also included internships with the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., and the Minnesota Legislature.
