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sElected advisors and partners

Stuart Ackman, commercial realtor and United Nations Association board director

Sara Barrow, Program Development Officer at Northwest Area Foundation

Barbara Bearman, Minnesota DFL Education Foundation Board Member, longtime activist for civil rights, and leader of public educational efforts

Gary DeCramer, Ed.D., Senior Lecturer in Leadership and Ethics, Humphrey Institute, University of Minnesota, and former state senator

Flannery Delaney, grant writer with The Nature Conservancy

Kent Eklund, Ph.D., President, Fairview Foundation; non-profit management consultant; and former political science department chair at St. Olaf College, Northfield mayor, and state commissioner under then-Governor Albert Quie.

Dawn Erlandson, Aurora Strategic Advisors, public relations consultant, former nonprofit executive director and former Congressional aide

Gene Eidenberg, Ph.D., Co-founder of Granite Ventures (venture capital group), former Cabinet Secretary under President Carter, former Vice Chancellor of University of Illinois at Chicago, and former CEO of Macrovision Corporation

Gordon Fischer, former Democratic Party Chair in Iowa; shareholder at Bradshaw, Fowler, Proctor & Fairgrave in Des Moines; and blogger (IowaTrueBlue.com)

Jim Harkness, President, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

Charlotte Hubbell, Iowa environmental commission member and philanthropist-activist

Prof. Emeritus Dennis Keeney, Agronomy and Agricultural Biosystems Engineering, Iowa State University; former Director, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture; senior fellow, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

George Latimer, retired Professor of Urban Studies at Macalester College and former Mayor of St. Paul

Elizabeth McCann, marketing and advertising consultant to nonprofits and campaigns, Minnesota and South Carolina

Dan McGrath, Executive Director, TakeAction Minnesota

Taina Maki, with the Minnesota Council of Non-Profits, and former Lobby Day Coordinator for OutFront Minnesota and Communications Director at TakeAction Minnesota

Dave Mann, Associate Director, Grassroots Policy Project

Lisa Middag, Design Studio and Publications Manager, Walker Art Center

Prof. Donald Ostrom, Political Science Departments, St. Olaf College and Gustavus Adolphus College, and former state representative

Federico Peña, former Secretary of Energy, Secretary of Transportation, and Mayor of Denver, now a managing director at Vestar Capital in Denver

Niel Ritchie, Executive Director, League of Rural Voters

Mary Rosenthal, founding board member emerita of Heartland Democracy and National Health Care Analyst with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

Michael Rothman, Attorney at Winthrop and Weinstine and activist

Prof. Emeritus Scott Shrewsbury, Minnesota State Univ. at Mankato, Political Science

Dane Smith, Executive Director of Growth and Justice and former journalist

David Snyder, Community Organizer at Jewish Community Action

Aaron Street, Co-Director, Institute for Law and Politics, Univ. of Minnesota Law School

Marie Zellar, National Deputy Director leading Minnesota’s Clean Water Action Alliance

 

Former advisors

Leon Panetta, Director of the Panetta Institute, former White House Chief of Staff, OMB Director, and U.S. House of Representatives Budget Committee Chairman, was a founding advisor to Heartland Democracy before President Obama asked him to serve as Director of Central Intelligence

Tom Vilsack, former Governor of Iowa, was a founding member of the Advisory Council before he became Secretary of Agriculture in the Obama administration