Playworks Twin Cities Board Members

Danielle Anderson 
Danielle Anderson is a vice president at RBC Wealth Management working in the area of Dispute Resolution (legal and compliance areas).  Her areas of specialty include complex securities disputes, collection matters and handling various projects outside the scope of day-to-day case management.

Danielle is serving her second tenure as a Member of the Board of Directors of the Minnesota AIDS Project.  She also is the Chair of the External Relations Committee and serves as a Member of the Finance Committee of the Board.  She also is a former Chair, Co-Chair and Communications Chair of the Gay, Lesbian, Allied Diverse Employee Group ("GLADE") at RBC Wealth Management.  During her 5 year tenure in these roles, she took the group through a strategic plan for growth; expanding membership from 8 to 60.  

With a passion for sailing and sailboat racing, Danielle served as the Board Chair of the Minnesota Women's Sailing Team and the Chair of the Fundraising and Boat Maintenance Committees.  Danielle competitively raced in the 2005 and 2007 Rolex International Women's Keelboat Regattas.  To add to her passion for the sport, Danielle currently is pursuing a certification as a Race Officer with hopes of becoming a Primary Race Officer and Regatta Judge in the future. 

Eric L. Anderson
A Donor Services Advisor at The Minneapolis Foundation since 2000, Eric serves as a liaison between the Foundation and the advisors of more than 500 funds and the nonprofit community.  Responsibilities include assisting donor advisors and their families in achieving their charitable goals; grant screening and selection; and, work on various projects that advance community philanthropy throughout the region.  He is involved nationally with the Council on Foundations and locally with the Minnesota Council on Foundations.  Eric has held positions at Minneapolis College of Art and Design, William Mitchell College of Law, and Augsburg College.  Community involvements: currently serves on the board of directors at the Minnesota AIDS Project; recently served on the Springboard for the Arts board of directors; and, was a founding board member of Youth Performance Company and Minneapolis Musical Theatre.  In 2000, Eric was selected as a McKnight Fellow to the Salzburg Seminar. 

Meghan Barp 
Meghan is a Program Manager with the United Way Twin Cities focusing on education and early childhood solutions.  As a Masters candidate through Oregon State University, Meghan spent time in New York City interviewing women leaders of non-profit organizations and learn about their management styles. In New York, she helped the YWCA secure a $3.4 million grant from New York City Department of Youth and Community Development's "Out of School Time" program to provide additional services to neighborhood youth. 

Nancy J. Katzmarek 
Nancy J. Katzmarek, PhD was an educator with the Saint Paul Public Schools for almost 40 years.  She has served in administrative positions for the majority of this time at the elementary, junior high and senior high school level as a principal or assistant principal.  She opened the first joint district venture high school integration program at the Mall of America, the Metropolitan Learning Alliance (MLA).  She was board chair of MLA for three years.  Her experiences included three years as project coordinator in staff development working with elementary teachers and the University of Minnesota. Dr. Katrzmarek was a member of the superintendency under the direction of Superintendent Dr. Harvey where she directed, developed and implemented the Leadership Institute for Aspiring Principals.   She oversaw an advisory board of school administrators to shape these unique structural changes in the methods of selection of school administrators.

Dr. Katzmarek served as adjunct faculty to the University of MN, Hamline University and worked with several other local universities.   She has presented at several national conferences and was keynote speaker at the AALAS Conference in Quito, Ecuador in 2005.   She currently supervises teacher candidates for the grad program at Hamline University. The success of public education and specifically urban education in providing a full and complete education that allows students to thrive and lead in a global society is her number one passion in life. 

Slater Crosby
After spending 15 years in the film business I decided to throw away the cameras for yelling and screaming kids!  My wife and I started The Little Gym in St Louis Park and have never looked back.  I like to tell parents we create Olympic quality children, not Olympic quality athletes.  The Little Gym builds many skills for children between 4 months and 12 years old.  We work on building social, emotional, physical and cognitive skills every week with every child.  I think The Little Gym philosophy and Playworks philosophy are very similar and I look forward to being an active member of the board. 

Steve Kelley
Steve is a senior fellow at the Humphrey School and the director of the Center for Science, Technology, and Public Policy.  He served in the Minnesota Senate from January 1997 through December 2006 and the Minnesota House of Representatives from January 1993 through December 1996. He was chair of the Senate Education Committee for four years. He has also run for statewide office.

Kelley has served on the boards of many organizations, including Minnesota Board of Medical Practice, the Sojourner Shelter (a secure residence for victims of domestic abuse), Physicians Health Plan, the Citizens League, the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Foundation, and the Sierra Club North Star Chapter Executive Committee.

In addition to his public service, Kelley has been a lawyer practicing commercial litigation at the Minneapolis firm of Mackall, Crounse, and Moore since 1979.  Kelley received his B.A. from Williams College graduating cum laude in 1975 and later earned his J.D. from the Columbia University School of Law in 1978. 

John Laravuso 
John Laravuso is an experienced trial lawyer practicing primarily in the areas of commercial litigation and product liability. He has represented manufacturers nationally in state and federal courts for over a decade, as well as financial institutions, agricultural businesses, railroads, health-care organizations, and other corporate clients in commercial and employment-related litigation.

His experience includes defending severe-personal-injury and death cases and multimillion-dollar property damage claims, and representing clients on both sides of a variety of other contractual and tort matters. He has appeared in court in more than a dozen states. John has particular skill in working with scientific and technical experts in the analysis of and reporting on expert issues, development of demonstrative testing and other evidence, and communication of technical issues to clients, judges, and juries.

Before entering private practice, he clerked for the Hon. Jack Davies of the Minnesota Court of Appeals. He has spoken at a variety of legal seminars and taught legal writing at the University of Minnesota.

John serves as president of Springboard for the Arts, a nonprofit arts-focused economic development organization. He was also a co-chair of the 2007 Attractive Nuisance Tour, a benefit for the Minnesota Justice Foundation and the Hennepin County Bar Foundation at which he has played guitar with his band many times. 

Katie Nyberg 
Katie is the Executive Director of the Mississippi River Fund, a charitable organization designed to strengthen the connection between people and the Mississippi River and build community support for our National Park, the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area In addition to establishing the fund as an independent nonprofit organization in 2007, Ms. Nyberg also led strategic planning for the fund and the National Park. She is responsible for overall management of the fund and its assets and well as developing long term programs and partnerships to benefit the National Park. Ms. Nyberg has broadened funding sources for a variety of education and stewardship programs, overseeing $1,000,000 in new contributions to the fund.

Prior to her work at the Mississippi River Fund, Ms. Nyberg spent ten years working for the Bell Museum of Natural History as coordinator of science education programs and as the Associate Director of Development. Katie lives with her husband and two sons in Minneapolis where she is active in her neighborhood school, Pratt Elementary. From 2005-2009, Katie was also member of the Minneapolis Arts Commission.