Ronnie Brooks

Ronnie Brooks is the founding director of the James P. Shannon Leadership Institute at the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation. Now in its twentieth year, the Shannon Institute provides a yearlong renewal experience for foundation and nonprofit organization leaders. Brooks was special assistant to the Governor of Minnesota, director of majority research for the Minnesota State Senate, and managed development projects for the mayors of both Minneapolis and Saint Paul. She was also vice president of the Keystone Center, a Colorado-based public policy organization, executive director of the Saint Paul Downtown Council, and manager of community development and policy planning for the Dayton-Hudson (now Target) Corporation. Brooks was president of both the Citizens League and the Mediation Center and a board member of the Voyager Outward Bound School, the David Preus Leadership Council, the Civic Leadership Foundation, and MAP for Nonprofits. She was a McKnight Fellow and an International Business Fellow and has received several awards for public service and leadership. She currently serves on the boards of Graywolf Press and the David Preus Leadership Council and is a member of the Mayor's Task Force on the Ford Motor Company plant and of the National Advisory Council to the Servant Leadership Center at Gustavus Adolphus College. Brooks attended the University of Michigan, received her MA in political science from Michigan State University, and has served on the faculty of the Legislative Staff Management Institute of the University of Minnesota's Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs and the University of St. Thomas Center for Nonprofit Leadership, focusing on leadership and management in the nonprofit sector.