2016 National Conference

Dana Jensen is Program Officer and Operations Manager for Delta Dental of Minnesota and Delta Dental of Minnesota Foundation. Dana’s responsibilities include grant making, operations management, corporate community affairs and communications. Before joining Delta Dental of Minnesota in May of 2011, Dana was Grants Program Manager at The Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation for six years and spent the prior 10 years working in the field of family violence prevention. She currently serves as Secretary/Treasurer of Neighborhood HealthSource’s board of directors. Dana earned her master's degree in public affairs from The Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs and received her bachelor's of arts in political science from the University of Iowa. 

Carrie Moore is Director of Advancement at People’s Center Health Services. She brings her passion for health equity to People's Center along with more than 10 years of experience of strategic development and communications in healthcare, and a further 10 years’ experience in marketing, public relations and event planning in a range of industries, both in the US and Great Britain. Most recently, she held a senior communications role at Fairview Health Services. Prior to that, she worked for the UK Departments of Health for seven years as Director of Strategy and Communications on a nationwide medical education reform project. Carrie holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Cardiff University, Wales, UK and a Bachelor of Science degree in Communications Management from Carroll University, Waukesha, Wisconsin. 

Marcus Pope currently serves as the Director of Partnerships and External Relations for Youthprise. In this role, he builds cross-sector collaborations, oversees research and evaluation and leads the organization’s development efforts. Previous to Youthprise, he served as Associate Director of the Institute on Domestic Violence in the African American Community at the University of Minnesota (U of M). Other experiences include serving as Director of Youth Programs for the Neighborhood Involvement Program in Minneapolis and Academic Advisor for the Youth Studies Department at the U of M School of Social Work. Marcus holds an interdisciplinary undergraduate degree in Sociology, Youth Studies and African American studies and a Master’s degree from the U of M in Education – Youth Development Leadership, with an emphasis in Program Evaluation. He also holds a Mini-MBA in Nonprofit Management and Fundraising Certificate from the University of St. Thomas’ Opus College of Business. 

Deanna Threadgill has held the position of Vice President of Programs at Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Greater Twin Cities (BBBS) since January 2014. In this role, she oversees the direct services that BBBS provides to youth, as well as partnerships with volunteers, other organizations and corporations. Deanna has been with BBBS for more than seven years. Her various roles have included Vice President of Program Development and Evaluation, in which she oversaw the development of new BBBS programs and data collection and analysis. She also represents the agency on the national Big Brothers Big Sisters child safety task force and the research to practice committee. With more than 20 years of experience in the nonprofit world, Deanna's background includes work in program development and management, fundraising and grants management. She has worked for causes including housing and healthcare development for a Native American community, to small business development, to higher education. Deanna has served on the national board of the Grant Professionals Association and the Minnesota chapters of the Grant Professionals Association and the Association of Fundraising Professionals. Currently, she is on the board of the Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota (MPM) and the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America’s (BBBSA) Research to Practice Committee and the BBBSA National Leadership Council’s Child Safety and Youth Protection Committee. Deanna holds a master's degree in philanthropy and development from St. Mary's University and a bachelor's degree in liberal arts from the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign).

Sahra Noor is the Chief Executive Officer of People's Center Health Services, a Minneapolis-based community health center committed to improving lives, transforming communities and achieving health equity for all. Noor is a healthcare executive with more than 15 years of experience leading change and influencing how healthcare is delivered to underserved communities. Her innovative and culturally inclusive initiatives have received numerous awards and accolades for improving health outcomes. Noor's collaborative research projects have been published in international peer-reviewed journals including: Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, Social Science & Medicine and Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict. Prior to joining People’s Center Health Services, Noor held leadership roles at Fairview Health Services as the Director of Community Health and Language Services and at UnitedHealth Group as the Director of Clinical Operations.  Noor serves on several community boards including Minnesota Association of Community Health Centers (MNACHC), the Institute of Clinical Systems Improvement (ICSI) and Minneapolis Public Health Advisory Council (PHAC). Noor holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing from St. Catherine’s University and a master’s degree in nursing and health systems administration from the University of Minnesota. She also completed a policy fellowship at the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs in 2010. In 2015, Noor was named one of Twin Cities Top 40 business leaders under the age of 40 by Minneapolis/ St. Paul Business Journal. She was also appointed by Governor Dayton and elected to serve as co-chair of the Minnesota Task Force on Healthcare Financing. 

Steve Peacock joined the staff of Augsburg College as Director of Community Relations in November 2008.  In this capacity, he plays a key role in identifying and facilitating opportunities for Augsburg College to strengthen its engagement as an anchor institution in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis. Prior to joining the staff at Augsburg, Steve worked for 17 years with Twin Cities Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) where he led the design and implementation of programs focused on affordable housing development and finance, community-based economic development and organizational capacity building. He holds a Masters Degree in Urban Planning from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota and a B.A. from the College of Wooster.