Courtney Gerber serves the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits (MCN) as Program Director. In this role, she develops, implements, and evaluates relevant educational programming for MCN, including its workshops and conferences. She is committed to ensuring this work happens in partnership with nonprofit workers and their aligned communities throughout the state of Minnesota and the eleven Native nations that share the same geography. In collaboration with MCN’s leadership team, Courtney is dedicated to fostering and supporting programming through an intersectional lens, which centers historically marginalized voices and perspectives and puts into action MCN’s equity and inclusion framework, with special attention paid to cultural specificity and building compassion.
The majority of Courtney’s 20 years in the nonprofit sector has focused on the arts, where she has led the creation of educational and interpretive platforms in museums that serve to convene people across many lived experiences. Foundational to all her work is her belief in the power of cross-sector partnership, community-led processes, and storytelling. Most recently, Courtney was curator of learning and engagement at the Minnesota Museum of American Art (the M). Prior to her work at the M, Courtney consulted with Twin Cities-based nonprofits on audience engagement and fundraising strategies, served on the board of directors for myHealth for Teens and Young Adults, and was associate director of Learning Initiatives at the Walker Art Center, where she co-founded Contemporary Journeys, a program for people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias and their care partners.
Courtney is a trained birth doula, parent, and partner. When she’s feeling brave, she calls herself a poet. She holds a B.A. in art history from Lawrence University, and an M.A. in art history and museum studies from Tufts University, and participated in the Getty Leadership Institute’s NextGen program.