Featured Speaker:
Suzanne Koepplinger
Director, Catalyst Initiative at the Minneapolis Foundation
Suzanne Koepplinger is the director of the Catalyst Initiative at the Minneapolis Foundation. Catalyst’s purpose is to honor and foster culturally authentic self-care practices to advance health and well-being. Initiated by the George Family Foundation in 2014, Catalyst joined the Minneapolis Foundation in January 2018, to bring innovative community based work to scale. Previously, Suzanne served for ten years as the executive director of the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center, where she led the first research, community response and program implementation in the country to address sex trafficking of American Indian women and girls. In that capacity, she has twice testified before Congress and is a certified trainer for the Office for Victims of Crime Training and Technical Assistance Center (OVC TTAC) and the National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Center (NHTTTC). Suzanne holds a master’s degree in the Art of Leadership from Augsburg College in Minneapolis and is one of 15 national leaders chosen for the NoVo Foundation’s first Move to End Violence cohort. She has extensive international experience as a trainer and public speaker. Current community service includes board membership with ArtSpace and Frank Theatre.