Minaa B. is a licensed social worker, mental health educator, and author of Owning Our Struggles. She is also the founder of a mental health consulting practice where she collaborates with organizations to help them develop psychological safety. Additionally, Minaa is the host of the Verywell Mind podcast, runs an advice column for Cosmopolitan magazine called Free Therapy, and is also a member of the Mental Health Advisory Committee for Wondermind, a mental fitness company co-founded by Selena Gomez.  An expert in her field, Minaa has been featured in various media outlets, including Red Table Talk, Peace of Mind with Taraji, Oprah Daily, Katie Couric Media, and more. Minaa currently resides in New York City.

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Website: www.minaab.com

Lissa Jones-Lofgren, She/Her/Hers, is a highly sought after speaker, facilitator and coach for individuals and organizations serious about working to grow beyond the illusion of inclusion. Lissa was the content creator and host of ‘Urban Agenda’ on KMOJ Radio, Minnesota’s oldest Black radio station, for 14 years, keeping her grounded in the community she teaches about, and the culture from which she emerged. Now in Season 7, Lissa is also host of ‘Black Market Reads’ for the Givens Foundation for African American Literature, a podcast that seeks to amplify the voices of Black authors and writers about their craft and their works. Lissa serves on the board of the University of Minnesota Friends of the Libraries and Rain Taxi, sponsor of the Twin Cities Book Festival and has lived in Minnesota all of her life.

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Website: www.lissajones.com

Ashley Oolman, founder & equity consultant of Allied Folk, guides partners through evidence-based best practices, organizational development, and progressive thought leadership. From large corporations to non-profits, she transforms strategic business initiatives and advances equitable community spaces. With more than a decade of leadership experience in advocacy, employment, and workplace culture, she understands how to navigate complex environments and provide actionable insights for growth. Ashley strives to advance community equity through her contributions on the African American Leadership Forum’s collective impact task force, and serves on a coalition of providers supporting transracially adopted youth to reinforce their development of positive black identity. Ashley earned an MBA with a concentration on human resource management, a BA in psychology with a minor in human development and family studies, and a certification in organizational diversity & inclusion.

Learn more:
Website: www.alliedfolk.com

Rusty Stahl is Founder, President & CEO of Fund the People, which aims to maximize investment in America’s nonprofit workforce. A recognized thought-leader, social entrepreneur, network-weaver, and student of the sector, his efforts were recognized through his induction onto The Nonprofit Times 2023 Power and Influence 50 List. With the support of The Kresge Foundation, Rusty launched Fund the People in 2014 as an outgrowth of his work at Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy (EPIP) and inspired by participation in a White House Forum on Nonprofit Leadership. Stahl holds an M.A. in Philanthropic Studies from Indiana University, where he studied with Robert L. Payton in the Jane Addams Fellowship. He completed his undergraduate degree at George Washington University in Washington, DC. Rusty has served on several nonprofit boards, including that of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) and Idealist.org. He has also served on advisory committees for the Council on Foundations, Independent Sector, Indiana University, Grand Valley State University, and the Nonprofit Workforce Coalition. Born and raised in Philadelphia, PA, Rusty now lives in New York’s Hudson Valley, with his wife, Sarah From, a coach and consultant to nonprofits, and their two daughters.

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Fund the People
Podcast-Fund the People

Co-founder Twin Cities Innovation Alliance (TCIA) & Executive Director, Midwest Center for School Transformation (MCST) Twin Cities, Minnesota. As an interdisciplinary and cross-sector thought leader, and community advocate Marika Pfefferkorn is a change agent working towards systems transformation in service of marginalized communities, scaling successes across education, technology, and civic leadership through engagement, policy, research, training and narrative building. Ms. Pfefferkorn integrates the creative arts, storytelling and collective cultural wisdom while applying a restorative lens to upend punitive conditions across educational ecosystems to reimagine education through a liberatory lens. In ongoing efforts to disrupt the Cradle to Prison Algorithm, and to ensure digital justice Ms. Pfefferkorn writes, teaches, trains and coaches’ youth, families, and systems on Data Justice through the No Data About Us Without Us Institute. Ms. Pfefferkorn takes a nuanced and agile approach to community engagement to meet people and systems where they are, to address the use of big data, predictive analytics, and facial recognition technologies across educational ecosystems and to amplify the impact student surveillance and monitoring have on racial justice, civil rights, and our democracy. 

Alicia Ranney is Vice President of Data and Evaluation at Metropolitan Alliance of Connected Communities (MACC). In her role, she leads MACC’s Data Services department, and leads a wonderful team of consultants who partner with 40+ member subscribers of MACC’s Data Services. Alicia feels most inspired about MACC’s role in supporting organizational incubation, capacity building and collaborative network building within the context of data keeping, data management and storytelling. Alicia holds a Master of Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Florida State University. She is passionate about her family, social justice, learning new things, and going on new adventures.  

Courteney Roessler’s initial experience as a social worker plunged her into the arena of crisis management specifically housing, child protection within the Latino community, and hunger. Working with clients living on the edge had a tremendous impact on her thinking of scarcity and abundance (which are often times consequences of unsustainable or misguided policy). Drawn to food insecurity work, she began managing food shelves (the MN version of food pantries 😊) in her community of Eastside, St. Paul, an area of extreme neglect and immense need. There she initiated programs and guidelines that helped those most in need. She engaged in a range of coalitions, community outreach, and collaborations, all in an effort to expand food accessibility within her community.

Courteney is now a grant manager for TEFAP in Minnesota, where she works with food banks, food shelves, and Tribal Nations. She describes TEFAP as being a “really cool federal program where states get to set policy and low barrier eligibility is celebrated”. She stays up at night thinking about program participants and how they feel and how they’re treated when they walk into a food shelf. She thinks about ways in which TEFAP policy can be used to support shelves, ensure that food is easily available, and to make continuous improvements within the hunger sector.

Ašʼápi (Dallas Nelson) was born and raised on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and is a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation. Dallas works within the Lakota Language and Education Initiative at Thunder Valley CDC. He received his Bachelor's in Sociology & American Indian Studies at Black Hills State University and his Master of Arts degree in Lakota Leadership and Management at Oglala Lakota College. He is currently working towards an Elementary Montessori teaching certificate at Southwest Institute of Montessori. Dallas is a long-time advocate for Indigenous Education, Lakota language reclamation and revitalization, social change, and social justice for all Indigenous children and families.

Joylenna Garcia (she/her) is the Technology and Data Systems Manager for Agate Housing and Services. In her role she is actively assessing and adjusting systems/processes to promote efficiency and effectiveness in ways that are accessible to for staff providing service and support. Her professional and personal experience provide her with a unique lens on issues that impact the frontline workers, and the people and communities served through social services. In her own words: “Lives change through accountability, transparency, collaboration and relationship. I'm setting intention around organizing our information, documentation and making things easy to access, locate in our internal network to support the external work. Often times the backend support and this kind of work is unseen, unspoken and undervalued."