Jane Leonard

Jane Leonard is a nationally known community development practitioner who works with and across diverse sectors, disciplines, and geographies to help people and places thrive, rural and urban together. Now actively retired and volunteering, she completed her paid working life as the president of Growth & Justice and was Minnesota’s first broadband infrastructure grants administrator, completing a circle she began a generation ago on the multi-sector Access Minnesota team that brought the first Internet connections to Minnesota counties. In between, Jane led various rural and community leadership development efforts including those at Minnesota Rural Partners and the Bush Foundation. She is a board member of ServeMinnesota, the state's AmeriCorp commission, and is also board chair of Minnesotans for the American Community Survey & 2030 Census. Jane lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, and is also a 4th-generation steward of her family’s farm in Central Minnesota with her siblings and cousins. You can read more about her life’s work and service as a collaboration catalyst at https://www.linkedin.com/in/janeeleonard.