Board

As VP, Organizing and Policy at the John and Denise Graves Ventures, Kyrra Rankine leads foundation strategy on city, county, and state impact and policy in the areas of child welfare, housing stability, and education. Kyrra has a passion for developing and supporting leaders to fulfill their visions for social change. She has played a lead role in developing projects and organizations like PERIS Hill Housing, Foster Advocates, the Advancing Equity Coalition, and Avivo Village.

Her career has also included work in youth development, affordable housing, education policy, community and political organizing, professional coaching, and social work. After graduating from Minneapolis Public Schools, she earned her B.A. from Northwestern University and an M.S.W. at Hunter College. She was recently the chair of the Heading Home MN Funders’ Collaborative, is current chair of the Advancing Equity Coalition, an advisory board member of the Butter Bakery B Corporation, and a member of her neighborhood redevelopment committee.

When Kyrra isn’t organizing something, she loves taking photos, coaxing plants to grow, hunting for good finds on eBay, and taking pictures of her husband, two kids and dog Leaf.

Terri Sorensen is the Chief Executive Officer of Friends of the Children, a national nonprofit that is breaking the cycle of generational poverty. Friends of the Children pairs children facing the greatest obstacles with a salaried, professional mentor (called a Friend) who stays with each child from as early as age 4 through high school graduation – 12+ years, no matter what.

As the national CEO, Sorensen is responsible for carrying out the vision, mission and strategic direction for the national network. She works closely with the National Board of Directors, a diverse and well-respected group of public, private and nonprofit leaders from around the country.

Over her 20-year tenure with the organization, Sorensen has led record-breaking fundraising efforts, bringing in over $250 million to the organization. Since becoming CEO in 2012, Sorensen has led an ambitious national expansion campaign, growing the organization from five to 33 locations in just ten years, and quadrupling the number of children served. She has also diversified funding streams, growing the network-wide operating budget from just $7.5 million in 2012 to $62 million in 2022.

In her role as national CEO, Sorensen sets the priorities for the network, ensures the organization is financially sustainable, and oversees Friends of the Children’s program implementation, research and evaluation, branding, fundraising and expansion efforts. She leads a national team of over 40 staff members and provides leadership for more than 576 staff across the country. Prior to being appointed national CEO in 2012, Sorensen served as the executive director of Friends of the Children – Portland, the founding chapter, for 12 years.

Under Sorensen’s leadership, Friends of the Children has become a national leader in evidence-based practice for its rigorous research and evaluation efforts. This includes participation in a Longitudinal Randomized-Controlled Trial, a Social Return on Investment study by the Harvard Business School Association of Oregon and a Social Innovation Fund Pay for Success feasibility study. Sorensen also oversees annual third-party evaluation of the network’s program data.

In 2019, Sorensen wrote an article for Stanford Social Innovation Review on the organization’s successful scaling efforts. Her work has led to national recognition for the organization in The New York Times, Forbes, Fortune, CBS News, NPR, Governing Magazine, The Chronicle of Social Change and dozens of other national media outlets.

Sorensen was selected as one of the first leaders for the Business Journal’s Leadership Trust. She was also selected for Results for America’s Moneyball for Government Nonprofit All-Star Team and the Leap of Reason Ambassadors Community. She has served on numerous boards of directors and received an Orchid Award for the 25 Most Influential Women in Business by the Portland Business Journal. In 2019, the organization was awarded the Platinum Seal of Transparency from GuideStar.

Sorensen holds a B.S. in accountancy from the School of Business and Public Administration at the University of Missouri—Columbia and is a Certified Public Accountant. Previously, she was controller for the American Red Cross Oregon Trail Chapter, held key managerial positions with Sprint Corporation and worked in public accounting for Ernst & Young in Kansas City, MO.

Simone Hardeman-Jones is the founding Executive Director of GreenLight Fund Twin Cities. Using a community centric and resident-led approach to philanthropy, Simone builds momentum and facilitates game-changing collaborations so community residents in the Twin Cities, especially those historically impacted by systemic racial and economic inequities can thrive.

Simone has a deep understanding of the role that systems of inequity play in the lives of those most underestimated in our communities and has committed her career to dismantling them. Her innovation and ability to build partnerships is demonstrated through her leadership of GreenLight Fund Twin Cities. In response to the voices of Minneapolis community residents, in 2022, GreenLight Fund Twin Cities announced a  $1.4 million public-private partnership to implement an innovative evidenced-based program – Let Everyone Advance with Dignity, a public-health approach to community safety focused on the Lake Street Corridor of Minneapolis. 

Simone began her career in public policy, serving in a variety of policy roles including in the Obama Administration as a key advisor to two U.S. Secretaries of Education and policy advisor to United States Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and the late Senator Kay R. Hagan (D-NC). Frequently tapped as an education policy expert particularly on issues related to diversifying the education workforce, Simone’s work has been shared nationally through partnerships with organizations like the Education Trust and the National Council on Teaching Quality. She has served on numerous national committees and advisory groups on the subject. Simone has also served on multiple political campaigns including as Director of African American Outreach for Senator Klobuchar’s 2006 Senate race.  

Born and raised in Minneapolis, Simone currently resides in the Twin Cities with her husband and five year old son. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, and the City of Lakes Chapter of Jack and Jill of America. Simone sits on the boards of Children’s MN, the Minnesota Alliance With Youth, and EdAllies. Simone holds both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from The American University in Washington, D.C.