Mao Yang
Community Coordinator
Mao Yang is a daughter, sister, friend, auntie, author, disability rights, inclusion, awareness, disability and justice advocate. She is obsessed with all things pink and sparkly. In her spare time she likes to eat spend time with her friends and play mobile games for money. Her hope is to use her experience living with the developmental disability cerebral palsy as a resource to draw from and be a vessel for others with intellectual developmental disabilities and leave the world a more inclusive place for them that she found it.
Bryan Boyce
Community Leader
Bryan Boyce grew up in Waseca, MN, and graduated from Grinnell College before teaching high school English in Lesotho and the Rosebud Lakota Reservation and serving as Assistant Director of Breakthrough San Juan Capistrano, which he led to nationally recognized student gains. He is the Founder of Cow Tipping, a social venture dedicated to changing our narratives on intellectual/developmental disability, for which he is the winner of Grinnell’s Wall Alumni Service Award, Teach For America’s Social Innovation Award, and fellowships from 4.0 Schools and the University of Minnesota. As the sibling of a brother with I/DD, Bryan knows firsthand the value and richness of exchange across neurological differences and is excited to share these gifts with others through L’Arche Twin Cities’ new and innovative model. In his spare time, Bryan enjoys every single menu item at Taco John’s and strives to preserve a streak of having swum in outdoor bodies of water each of the past consecutive 223 months.
Board of Directors
Leah Welch
President
Leah Welch is from Minneapolis and now lives in St. Paul. She studied theology at Duke Divinity School, where she learned about L’Arche, and spent a summer as an assistant at L’Arche Daybreak in Canada. Following seminary, she joined L’Arche Seattle and lived there for six years. She has been part of the founding group of L’Arche Twin Cities since 2014. Some of her favorite L’Arche experiences are L’Arche retreats (Core Member & Ignatian), making candles from recycled wax in the L’Arche Seattle Activity Center, community talent shows, and perusing Henri Nouwen’s personal library while staying at the house where he lived in L’Arche Daybreak.
Sheena Schar
Treasurer
Sheena Schar grew up in the Twin Cities and currently calls Bloomington, MN home. She has a degree in Religion and Classical Studies from Concordia College. After college, Sheena found a passion for nonprofit work while in Wilmington, DE while in Lutheran Volunteer Corps. She worked for many years in day and employment services for those with developmental disabilities before transitioning to accounting. Seeking more connection with the disability community, Sheena joined the L’Arche board in 2024 and currently serves as its Treasurer. She is excited to see all the ways that L’Arche Twin Cities can foster community and connections.
Kat Kohorst
Kat Kohorst is from northern Minnesota, but was able to spend some life-altering years with L’Arche in Vancouver, BC. She is also a special education teacher, mostly working with kiddos who are deafblind and/or have autism. She is so excited to see this community grow and have an impact in the Twin Cities.
Danielle Mahoehney
Danielle Mahoehney grew up in a small town in southeastern Minnesota and learned about L’Arche in college. After graduating, she spent two years living in a L’Arche community, where she met her husband. They moved to the Twin Cities in 2012 and soon began connecting with others interested in growing L’Arche in the Twin Cities. Danielle and her husband live in St. Paul with their four children, and she works in higher education on training, consulting, and research projects to increase the inclusion of people with disabilities within their communities.
Maeve McDevitt
Maeve McDevitt is a young woman who wishes she could time travel to times of past years especially the 1920s (only to visit). For now she gets to live in a different time as she writes a historical fiction novel about a Deaf woman living during the 1920s and 1930s and has to put up with living in the modern world ugh. She is a curious soul who loves not only history and antique/vintage items but traveling, cooking, hanging out with friends, family and boyfriend, is an animal lover and last not least enjoys reading books and writing stories.
Adam Ruff
Adam Ruff grew up in New Brighton and moved to Minneapolis to attend college at Augsburg University and has been living in Minneapolis ever since with his two cats Prin and Gus! Whether he’s working at Advocating Change Together, sitting in a park birdwatching, or at a Timberwolves or Loons game, promoting disability inclusion is a passion in all aspects of his life. This passion started as a career path for him and has recently grown into a special interest in his personal life. He’s excited to be a part of the L’Arche community where he can contribute his skills professionally while exploring his personal connection to the disability community.
