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Press Release

Women’s Foundation of Minnesota Welcomes Two New Trustees

The Women’s Foundation of Minnesota welcomes two new trustees to its Board. Their three-year terms began on April 1, 2018.

New Trustees:

WFMN Trustee Chanda Baker

Chanda Smith Baker is the Senior Vice President of Community Impact at The Minneapolis Foundation. She has 25 years of nonprofit and community experience, most recently serving as President and CEO of Pillsbury United Communities. She has a broad and deep network of relationships in Minneapolis-St. Paul, a long track record of providing business insight and transformational leadership, and a strong vision of how to create a community where social, racial, and economic equity thrive. Chanda oversees the Foundation’s Community Impact team and its competitive grantmaking program, provides strategic direction and leadership to the Foundation’s community initiatives, and partners with organizations and leaders across the city and state, as well as the Foundation’s donors, to increase their alignment and collective impact in the community. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Organizational Management and Communications from Concordia University.

WFMN Trustee Julia Classen

Julia Classen is a retired nonprofit organizational and governance consultant. Julia worked as a consultant in a variety of arenas, including board development, organizational assessment, capacity building, performance management, leadership development, strategic management and planning, public policy formation, and facilitation. Julia served as a Public and Nonprofit Leadership Center’s Hubert Fellow at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota and as Senior Fellow for the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits.

Julia was an adjunct faculty member at the University of MN, Humphrey School teaching a graduate course on Nonprofit Board Development and Leadership. For a number of years, Julia taught Management and Governance of Nonprofits as a core course of the undergraduate major/minor in nonprofit management. Throughout her adult life and into retirement, Julia has served on state and national nonprofit boards. Her specific interests are in women and youth, equity and social justice, and LGBTQ rights.

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