Diverse paths of Innovation and Leadership: Angie Arnold '92

Angie Arnold '92 will be the featured speaker in the Diverse Paths of Leadership and Innovation speaker series on Friday, April 27. The event, which is free and open to the public, will start at 2 p.m. in Noyce 1023. The Donald and Winifred Wilson Center for Innovation and Leadership is sponsoring the speaker series and associated course.

After graduating from Grinnell with a degree in anthropology and concentration in gender & women’s studies, Ms. Arnold took a series of paths that looked nothing like her initial career plans. Rather than taking a year off and then heading to graduate school, she became executive director (and sole staff person) of a startup affordable housing organization in Nebraska. She then moved to Minneapolis where she worked for the Minnesota Housing Partnership, a technical assistance organization providing organizational development support to rural affordable housing organizations, then as an asset manager for Central Community Housing Trust (now Aeon), an affordable housing organization in Minneapolis. At each of these small organizations, Angie pitched in when grants needed to be written. After taking time off due to the birth of her son and subsequent postpartum depression, Ms. Arnold began working as a full-time grant writer for the employment and training division of RESOURCE, a multi-faceted social service agency in the Twin Cities. She was with the agency for ten years, ending as the director of grants for the entire agency, which had an annual budget of approximately $25 million, 95% of which was grants and contracts. 

In 2012, Ms. Arnold began working in grants at Normandale Community College. She has grown the college’s grant department from a .75 FTE shared with another institution to 2.0 FTE, ensuring the institution’s capacity to secure and adequately manage grants and while maintaining compliance with federal regulations. She is actively involved in the college’s accreditation work and regularly contributes to the campus through service on various committees, particularly those related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. She is actively involved in the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees, serving as co-lead for the campus meet and confer team in addition to participating in local and statewide events.