EMAIL“We are each other’s harvest; we are each other’s business; we are each other’s magnitude and bond.” — Gwendolyn Brooks
6Maya builds and maintains relationships with community leaders and is committed to helping communities thrive on their own terms. She focuses on how the Foundation can be a partner, advancing equity and justice across the region through grants and program-related investments.
For more than 25 years, she’s worked with foundations, nonprofit organizations, and state government to provide access and opportunities for communities that have experienced disinvestment.
Most recently, she was program director of economic ecosystem for The Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation of Minnesota, which works in partnership with the Minneapolis Foundation to support community opportunities in North Minneapolis. She’s also worked for Planned Parenthood North Central States, the Minnesota Office of Higher Education, the Bush Foundation, Youthprise, and the National Youth Leadership Council. She spent 20 years as a writer for Insight News, which serves the Twin Cities African American community.
Her passion for community engagement extends to her roles as a board member for YWCA St. Paul and as chair for outreach and grants for the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Minnesota Management Committee.
She earned a master’s in public affairs from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota and a bachelor’s in communication studies from Hamline University in St. Paul, MN. She also holds a Minnesota real estate license.
Maya is a native of the historic St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood and also spent many of her formative years in South Minneapolis. She believes the life you live today creates the life you will experience tomorrow, so she makes the most of her life—spending time with family and friends, traveling, carving out time for creating collage art, and managing her greeting card company, CardFolk.