Colleen Aho

5th Congressional District
First term appointment: Feb. 4, 2026 - Jan. 7, 2030
Committee assignments: Public Policy Committee

Colleen Aho is a former federal mediator and labor union executive and northern Minnesota native who is a longtime Minneapolis resident. As a Commissioner with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS), Colleen served as a professional neutral in numerous collective bargaining negotiations, grievance and alternate dispute resolution processes, labor-management training and other services to employers, labor organizations, and other federal agencies. She was part of a select team of U.S. federal mediators who carried out a Spanish-language mediator training program for Mexican officials over three years under a U.S. State Department contract, that concluded with the successful establishment of professional labor mediation services for the first time in Mexico as required under new labor laws. Prior to her FMCS work, Colleen was Executive Director and chief negotiator for the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, Twin Cities, and subsequently held a national staff position with Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists after the national merger of the two unions. Her work has spanned several decades, leading collective bargaining, organizing and contract administration in SAG-AFTRA and involved multiple local, regional and national collective bargaining agreements in all sectors of covered work in the film and entertainment and broadcast news industry. 

Colleen also has extensive experience serving on statewide appointed and other community-based boards, including Clearway MN (MPAAT), MN Humanities Center, United Arts Board, Resource Center of the Americas Board and CAYO. She was a volunteer mediator with the Minneapolis-based Conflict Resolution Center and has trained in transformative mediation under Dan Simon. Colleen is fluent in Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese and has lived and traveled in Latin America. She is an active member of the Great River Chapter of the American Society of Botanical Artists and Editor of Wild Beauty: The Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden Florilegium – Botanical Watercolors from the Minnesota School of Botanical Art. She is an alumnus of the University of Minnesota with a degree in Journalism and Spanish Literature.