Nate Bostrom introduced Jane Leonard, the President of Growth & Justice since 2018. Jane is a widely respected Minnesota policy expert with more than three decades of experience in philanthropy and community development. Leonard has held a wide variety of leadership positions in community development for the State of Minnesota (she has served under DFL, Republican, and Independence Party governors). She has been instrumental throughout her career in helping communities and businesses throughout the state to realize their potential through public and private investment in human capital, technology, and physical infrastructure.
Growth & Justice is a research and advocacy organization that develops innovative public policy proposals based on independent research and civic engagement. They believe when Minnesota makes smart investments in practical solutions it leads to broader prosperity for all. For more than a decade it has been setting Minnesota’s progressive agenda by uniting people around one simple philosophy: a robust state economy with widespread economic opportunity leads to a higher quality of life and greater economic justice.
Their vision for Minnesota:
- Business and job growth is strong and steady
- Economic and racial equity is improving
- All our children are getting a stronger start in life
- We are better connected to jobs and other destinations
- Our economy and environment are clean
- We lead healthier lives in sustainable communities
Growth & Justice works to achieve its vision for Minnesota by looking at potential solutions through a nonpartisan lens and making recommendations to policymakers, community leaders, and citizens. These recommendations focus on making smart investments where they matter most, with strategies that are proven and cost-effective, and are funded sufficiently with revenue that has been raised fairly.
Jane compared the Rotary Four-Way Test with the ideals of the Growth and Justice organization. She described the Minnesota Equity Blueprint – a document containing 141 recommendations to act as a resource for individual and community action. It is organized into four sections: Human Capital, Infrastructure, Economic Development, and Environmental Resilience. An Executive Summary of the Blueprint can be found online:
www.growthandjustice.org/publication/Executive_Summary.pdf.
The interconnections included in the Blueprint were graphically displayed in maps that showed where people of color live, the cost of childcare throughout the state, the number of small businesses present in each county, and the state’s biomes and locations hit hardest by climate change. Jane closed her presentation with a recommendation to shift the narrative from geographic, economic, and racial disparities to a shared economic and community future.
To contact Jane:
Email jane@growthandjustice.org, Phone 651-303-5263,
