GCLS is thrilled to announce that Minneapolis City Council Member Andrea Jenkins will serve as our keynote speaker at the 20th Anniversary Annual Conference in the Twin Cities on July 13, 2024.
Andrea Jenkins is currently serving her third term as a Minneapolis City Council Member. She moved to Minnesota to attend the University of Minnesota in 1979. She worked as a Vocational Counselor for Hennepin County government, for a decade. Jenkins worked as a staff member on the Minneapolis City Council for 12 years before beginning work as curator of the Transgender Oral History Project at the University of Minnesota's Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies.
She holds a master’s degree in Community Development from Southern New Hampshire University, a MFA in Creative Writing from Hamline University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Services from Metropolitan State University. She is a nationally and internationally recognized writer and artist, a 2011 Bush Fellow to advance the work of transgender inclusion, and the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships. In 2018 she completed the Senior Executives in State and Local Government at Harvard University.
I met with Council Member Jenkins several months ago and she is quite pleased we are coming to Minneapolis-St. Paul. She was quick to point out that she writes in our genre. I have also had the pleasure of seeing her speak. We are in for a rich presentation from an amazing speaker.
Warm regards,
Betsy Carswell
(she/her)
Board President
