Tonya Allen
President, McKnight Foundation

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Tonya Allen serves as president of the McKnight Foundation, a Minnesota-based family foundation that seeks to advance a more just, creative, and abundant future where people and planet thrive. McKnight annually grants about $100 million in support of climate solutions in the Midwest, an equitable and inclusive Minnesota, the arts, neuroscience, and international crop research.
 
Throughout her 25-year career, Allen has been a bridge-builder and a civic diplomat focused on community-led philanthropy and the power of transforming place. With extraordinary persistence, she has worked to bring people together across diverse sectors to catalyze fresh thinking, test new approaches, and advocate for equitable policies and practices that benefit everyone.
 
Allen is the chair for the Council on Foundations, the chair of the Oakland University board of trustees, and the co-chair of the Executives’ Alliance for Boys and Men of Color. Allen’s leadership is well-lauded, and she received the University of Michigan’s Bicentennial Alumni Award, Funders Network’s Nicholas P. Bollman Award, and NAACP’s Great Expectations Award.