The Minnesota Council on Foundations has named Trista Harris as its new president.
She’ll take over July 29, succeeding Bill King, who announced his retirement in January. He’d been with MCF for 25 years, 12 years as president.
Harris has been executive director of the Headwaters Foundation for Justice in Minneapolis and recently received the 2013 Hubert H. Humphrey Public Leadership Alumni Award for Social Justice and Inclusion. She’s also chair of the national board of advisers of Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy .
“The MCF board is convinced that Trista Harris is the right leader at the right time,” said Kevin Walker, chair of MCF’s board of directors and president and CEO of Northwest Area Foundation. “Our members’ communities, our state, and the world are changing fast. Trista’s passion for unlocking philanthropy’s potential is a great fit for the challenges we face.”
Harris has previously worked as program officer at The Saint Paul Foundation and Minnesota Community Foundation (now Minnesota Philanthropy Partners), as development director at Portico Healthnet, a nonprofit providing health coverage and education to uninsured Minnesotans, and in various research and management positions at other nonprofit organizations, MCF said.
MCF has 170 grant-making members who award nearly $1 billion a year. The council says it works as an advocate for giving, a resource for grantmaking and as a catalyst for philanthropy.
