MAPL: Where new leaders of our advocacy community emerge.

Fall 2009-MAPL Guest Speakers

Gary Cunningham has served as the top leader of philanthropic, health care, public policy and educational organizations.  He provides an innovative and results driven strategic approach to each institution, accelerating systemic change, and improving outcomes and organizational performance.  In each organization, he brought together people with diverse interests and backgrounds to improve the lives of poor and working people.  

Currently, Gary Cunningham serves as vice presidents, chief program officer for the Northwest Area Foundation.  In this capacity he is responsible for carrying out the foundation's mission to help communities reduce poverty in an eight states region of the United States.  The Northwest Area Foundation is the fourth -- largest Private foundation in Minnesota and among the 100 wealthiest foundations of the United States.

Prior to his work at the foundation, Gary served as the president and chief executive officer for NorthPoint Health & Wellness Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  He has designed and successfully led a reinvention and renewal effort creating the largest and most successful community health and human service organization in Minnesota. 

In 1992, Gary received a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government after being awarded the Bush Leadership Fellowship.  He received a bachelor’s in public policy from Metropolitan State University in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Highlights of awards and recognition include the National Association of Human Rights Workers Outstanding Achievement Award, Humphrey H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs Public Leadership Award, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Distinguished Service, and outstanding achievement awards from both Hennepin and Scott Counties.

Gary presently serves as co-chair of the Minnesota Mental Heath Action Group, and is a board member of the University of Minnesota Medical Center, and advisory board member of the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs -- Center for the Study of Politics and Governance and the University of Minnesota's College of Education and Human Development. 

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Tim Delaney--An attorney with extensive leadership experience in the business, government, and nonprofit sectors, Tim Delaney started serving as the National Council’s President & CEO in July 2008. Tim began his career at a large multi-state law firm, where he focused on litigation, media law, and government relations. Appointed in 1995 to be Arizona’s Solicitor General, after winning cases in the U.S. Supreme Court he was promoted to the top staff position of Chief Deputy Attorney General. In 2001, Tim left the Attorney General’s Office to create the Center for Leadership, Ethics & Public Service, an independent nonprofit through which he worked with more than 22,000 people across the country championing positive ethics, advancing civic engagement, and promoting democracy.

During his career, Tim has helped nonprofits from a variety of vantage points, including as an attorney, author, board chair, CEO, consultant, founder, incubator, lobbyist, teacher, trainer, and volunteer. For instance, Tim previously served as board chair of Valley Leadership, adjunct faculty member at a major university teaching courses on “Leadership & Ethics in the Nonprofit Sector,” and author of a guidebook on nonprofit advocacy.  He continues to serve as a national Training Fellow for the nonpartisan Center for Lobbying in the Public Interest.

In the field of ethics and public trust, Tim has served as a prosecutor (helping to impeach a Governor and later remove four other elected officials from office), author, legislative drafter (e.g., developing Arizona’s Public Service Ethics Act), and consultant and trainer for businesses, governments, and nonprofits.

Numerous organizations have formally recognized Tim’s community and professional contributions, including the National Association of Attorneys General (Marvin Award for leadership and service, and Best Brief Award for legal writing in the U.S. Supreme Court), National Association of Community Leadership (Distinguished Leadership Award), LBJ School of Public Affairs (Distinguished Public Service Award – alumnus of the year), and Arizona State University (School of Public Affairs’ Faculty Associate Award and the Nonprofit Management Institute’s Outstanding Faculty Member Award).

Mayra Gomez, PhD, is the Coordinator of the Women and Housing Rights Programme with the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), an international human rights organization dedicated to the promoting housing rights for everyone, everywhere.  Grounding its work in principles and norms established under international human rights law, the Women and Housing Rights Programme addresses and champions the right to adequate housing for women through a participatory and holistic programme of activities. Mayra has extensive international travel experience and has traveled to dozens of countries in every region of the world and at every stage of development. She has participated in numerous human rights fact-finding and training missions both domestically and abroad, addressing issues of discrimination against women and violations of human rights. Mayra has several years experience advocating for human rights at the UN, and lectures frequently to students, human rights activists, policy makers and representatives of international organizations.  She has authored over thirty human rights articles, books and reports.  With Amnesty International USA, Mayra currently serves on the Board of Directors, Chairing its International Committee.  She is a member of the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Advisory Group of AIUSA, and served for four years on the AIUSA Women’s Human Rights Steering Committee, co-Chair the Committee for two years.

Mayra has travelled and worked internationally, including in Austria, Brazil, Cambodia, Colombia, Cyprus, El Salvador, Finland, France, Gambia. Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Hungary, Israel/Palestine (West Bank), Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Netherlands, Rwanda, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan (Darfur), Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom, and Zambia).

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Matt Massman was appointed Lead Fiscal Analyst for the Minnesota State Senate in 2005.  In this role Matt provides non-partisan staff support to Senators and Senate leadership relating to development and oversight of the state budget, including: coordinating budget decisions made by Senate Tax and Finance Committees; reviewing and analyzing budget alternatives and advising members on budget options; staffing hearings of the Senate Finance Committee; communicating budget information transmitted by the Executive; drafting legislation; and mentoring new fiscal staff. Prior to joining the Senate he served as state and local tax policy director for the Minnesota Department of Revenue and as a tax fiscal analyst for the Tax Committee of the Minnesota House of Representatives. Mr. Massman received his bachelor’s degree from Hamline University in St. Paul, MN, and a master’s of arts in public administration from the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Following graduate school, he spent seven years with the Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau where he contributed to and supervised evaluations of state and local programs.

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Rinal Ray is a Project Coordinator and joined MCN in September, 2008. She is responsible for coordinating the Nonprofit Legal Handbook and the Preserve Charitable Tax Exemptions Campaign.

Before joining MCN, Rinal worked as a judicial intern, a law clerk at the Youth Law Project of the Minneapolis Legal Aid Society and was a Minnesota Justice Foundation summer law clerk at the Public Defender’s Office in Rochester. She also was a legal research assistant in the areas of public international law and she developed comparative jurisdictional exercises in the areas of professional responsibility, civil procedure and legislative history. Rinal volunteered with the Street Law program and Hennepin County’s Office of Multicultural Services and completed an AmeriCorps term of service with Admission Possible.  Currently, she serves as the Governance and Incorporation Chair for the Twin Cities chapter of the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network board.

Rinal was admitted to the Minnesota bar in 2008. She has a J.D. from William Mitchell College of Law and a B.A. degree in International Studies and Political Science from Macalester College.

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Amanda Tattersall is the Coalition Director of the Sydney Alliance (Australia), a citizens' coallition whose vision is to provide a community voice on common values and aspirations for a fair and just Sydney.

Amanda completed her Ph.D. dissertation on community unionism through the University of Sydney. Community Unionism occurs when trade unions campaign with community organisations and social movements on issues beyond wages and condition. Her dissertation involved a comparative study of industrial relations and social movement practice in Australia, Canada and the United States.

Amanda has been a union and community organiser. She was President of the National Union of Students, co-founded Labor for Refugees and GetUp.org.au, and has been an officer of Unions NSW. She has written extensively on coalition practice around the world.

Lorraine Teel has worked to shape a more positive and progressive society for over 30 years. In June of 1990, Lorraine became Executive Director of the Minnesota AIDS Project (MAP). Her achievements at MAP include overseeing the growth of the organization and expansion into new programming areas for nearly 20 years. During this period of time, Lorraine has guided the organization as it expanded its work in advocacy, prevention and services.  Her work on AIDS-related advocacy included active participation on many local and national committees, including AIDS Action Council in Washington, DC, where she served on the Board of Directors and as Co-Chair of the Public Policy Committee. She has also served as a member of the Minnesota Commissioner’s Task Force on HIV/STD Prevention and as Co-Chair of the Minnesota HIV Services Planning Council’s Needs Assessment Committee. 

Prior to her work with MAP, Lorraine’s work in human services has been extensive. She was one of the founders and served as Executive Director for Eden Programs (now known as RS Eden), a groundbreaking drug abuse treatment center. She served as one of the first Board members for the national organization, Therapeutic Communities of America. She has been recognized as a leader in the field of drug abuse treatment, most notably for her work with those addicted to illicit drugs as well as those with both chemical dependency and mental health problems. She also has served as a consultant to non-profits in the areas of criminal justice and women’s issues. Throughout her career, Lorraine has worked with communities that fall outside of the American mainstream: communities of color, the gay, lesbian, bisexual, & transgender communities; impoverished persons; felons; and those with substance abuse problems.

Organizations that have benefited from her commitment in addition to those mentioned above, include the Institute on Black Chemical Abuse (now African American Family Services), La Oportunidad, Progress Valley and Pyramid Mental Health Center.

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Bret Thiele received his JD, cum laude, from the University of Minnesota Law School.  He is the Coordinator of the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Litigation Programme with the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), an international human rights organization based in Geneva, Switzerland.  Bret is an international human rights lawyer with extensive knowledge of economic, social and cultural rights, with particular focus on the justiciability of such rights as well as on the right to adequate housing. Bret regularly conducts investigations into housing rights violations, facilitates community organizing and mobilization, has conducted several workshops on ESC rights and strategic advocacy around the world, and has litigated ESC rights before such entities as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and the European Social Committee.  He has also worked extensively with United Nations human rights bodies, including the Commission on Human Rights; the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights; the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the Human Rights Committee; and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and has trained individuals with respect to these bodies as well.  He has lectured on ESC rights at the University of Minnesota Law School, the University of Chicago, the University of Minnesota – Duluth, the University of Wisconsin – Superior, Åbo Akademi (Turku, Finland), l’Institut Universitaire des Hautes Etudes Internationales (University Institute for Higher International Studies) (Geneva, Switzerland) and the Danish Institute for Human Rights (Copenhagen, Denmark) as well as for Amnesty International and Global Rights.

Bret has travelled extensively, including spending time abroad for months in duration.  International travels include trips to and work in Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, El Salvador, Finland, France, the Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Hungary, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, the Netherlands, occupied Palestinian territory, the Philippines, Senegal, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Switzerland, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and Viet Nam.

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See past Guest Speakers