James Poteet

For the last 12 years, James Poteet (he/him) has devoted his career to systems navigation, resource connection, and advocacy for Deaf, DeafBlind, hard of hearing, and disabled adults and families at the county, state, and federal levels—the majority of whom were LGBTQ+, BI&POC, language deprived, low-income, and/or unhoused. Some of his most recent advocacy work involved the #Out4MentalHealth Project workgroup, a three-year statewide project led by Cal Voices and the California LGBTQ Health & Human Services Network, which focused on mental health equity, capacity-building resources in local LGBTQ+ communities, and participation in state-level policy discussions. Much of James’ public speaking for the #Out4MentalHealth Project centered on sociocultural determinants of health, disparities in quality of life, as well as barriers in accessing culturally responsive healthcare. James was listed as a co-author in the #Out4MentalHealth Project’s first of three reports, Surveying the Road to Equity: The Annual State of LGBTQ Communities, 2019. 

As a Deaf, disabled, transmasc individual living with multiple disabilities, James has also encountered personal challenges with housing instability, economic and food insecurity, healthcare access, emergency preparedness, and/or limited support across six different states, Minnesota included. His out-of-state experiences add to the dialogue of what worked well that Minnesota could possibly replicate in improving access to and quality of disability-related supports. Systems efficiency and applied statistics in human services is his bread and butter, and James is eager to dive deep in creative problem-solving for the next Olmstead Plan that results in improved quality of life for disabled Minnesotans.

Currently, James provides virtual therapy sessions in American Sign Language (ASL) for Deaf, DeafBlind, and hard of hearing individuals and families statewide as a Licensed Graduate Social Worker with the goal to obtain independent clinical licensure and integrate healthcare navigation/advocacy in his practice.

Raised in an all-hearing family in Lodi, California, a small city regarded as the heart of California’s agricultural community for their vineyards on unceded Plains Miwok and Lisjan territory, James was mainstreamed in public schools with interpreters for most of his K-12 education. A first-generation college graduate, James holds a Master’s degree in Social Work and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from California State University, Sacramento, and is a resident of Duluth, the ancestral and unceded lands of the Ojibwe, Dakota, and Northern Cheyenne. In his free time James enjoys pet sitting for his neighbors, quality time with his partner and friends, sidereal astrology, the outdoors, and intermittent road trips.