Gary Cunningham
VP of Programs - Chief Program OfficerJoined Northwest Area Foundation: May 2007
Gary provides strategic direction and management across the Foundation’s programs. He also is responsible for ongoing development and implementation of programmatic and learning/evaluation systems.
Gary’s 25+ year career has included leadership positions in both the public and private sectors. Most recently, he was the president and CEO for NorthPoint Health & Wellness Center in Minneapolis where he lead a successful reinvention/renewal effort to build human and social capital in one of Minnesota’s poorest communities.
Gary was director of planning and development for Hennepin County, Minnesota, where he oversaw policy development and strategic planning and directed the county’s Housing and Redevelopment Authority. While there, he was the architect of the Hennepin County Affordable Housing Incentives Fund and the African-American Men Projects.
Earlier in his career, Gary served as county administrator for Scott County, Minnesota; acting operations administrator and executive director of human resources for the Minneapolis Public Schools; research fellow for the University of the Minnesota Extension Service/Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs; and deputy director of the Minneapolis Civil Rights Department. He also was a manager/consultant for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority. Gary has a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Metropolitan State University in Minneapolis and a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Gary serves and leads on a number of nonprofit boards, including the Minnesota Mental Heath Action Group and the University of Minnesota Medical Center, and he is an 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.