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A J K S V
Dir, Foundation & Govt Resourc
Foundation & Govt Relations
Office: T1414
Phone: (218) 723-6734
Adjunct Faculty
Masters of Nonprofit
Lee Stuart, PhD
Dr. Lee Stuart is the Director of the Masters in Nonprofit Leadership Program. Her nonprofit career started when she was a teenager volunteering with environmental organizations, at a day center for children with cerebral palsy, and as a reading tutor. Since then, she has created nonprofits from scratch, worked at well-established organizations, and dissolved organizations at the end of their useful life. She has worked in multiple roles for organizations with budgets from zero to $30 million, including but not limited to community engagement coordinator, executive director, volunteer coordinator, fundraiser, grant writer, lead organizer, project manager, advocate, operations, and more.
Nonprofit leadership was not Lee’s original career path. She earned a BA degree in environmental studies from Prescott College (Arizona), an MS degree in Biology from San Diego State University, and a PhD in Ecology through a joint program between San Diego State and the University of California at Davis. Her research interests were soil-plant interactions in the tundra, mathematical modeling of ecosystem function, and recovery of the tundra following disturbance. As long ago as 1977, she was working on some of the potential impact of climate change on tundra environments.
When Lee was completing her dissertation, she volunteered for a UNICEF benefit in San Diego where she met others interested in ending global poverty while recognizing a local need. With them, she created SHARE (Self-Help and Resource Exchange) which eventually grew into an international network with 35 branches in the United States, and affiliates in Mexico and Guatemala. Lee took this program with her to a postdoc at Virginia Tech, where it was sponsored by New River Valley Community Action, and then was invited to introduce the project to the South Bronx. She thought she’d stay about six months in the Bronx before moving on with her academic career, but it didn’t work out that way. Within a few months, she had built SHARE – New York into a million-dollar organization serving over 10,000 families a month through 250 host faith communities while providing a new, non-competitive market in New York City for regional farmers and growers. She realized that she could have a broader impact as an agent for community change than as a professor of intro biology.
AFter five years, Lee turned SHARE over to local leaders, and then worked for two years as the development director for Augustine Fine Arts at her parish elementary school where, in addition to their regular academic program, every child learned to play the piano and another musical instrument, studied music theory and voice, and could participate in any of a variety of ensembles. This program was featured in a prize-winning film at Sundance, “Something Within Me.”
After St. Augustine’s School burned down and could not be rebuilt, Lee started working with South Bronx Churches, an affiliate of the Industrial Areas Foundation. As lead organizer she helped guide the construction of almost 1,000 homes for first-time homeowners, the creation of a new public high school, and a spin-off of South Bronx Churches to create almost 500 rental apartments. As these projects wound up, Lee spent several years as the head of international fundraising for The Hunger Project, and then a short stint at New Yorkers for Parks, before moving to Duluth in 2011.
Lee was the Program Director at Duluth LISC (Local Initiatives Support Corporation) for two years, working primarily on neighborhood planning in Lincoln Park, Morgan Park, Central and East Hillside and West Duluth. In 2013 she became the Executive Director of CHUM, a coalition of over 40 faith communities that for nearly fifty years has been a key part of Duluth’s safety net for people experiencing homelessness, hunger and isolation. At CHUM, Lee supported a staff of 35 to fulfill CHUM’s mission through street outreach, emergency shelter, the Food Shelf, supportive housing and advocacy.
She is eager to apply over 40 years of innovative, responsive, collaborative, systems- and relationship- based work to the creation of the Masters in Nonprofit Leadership. Her goal is that students won’t have to learn it all the hard way, but can experience academic, personal and professional support to develop themselves as true community leaders.
In her spare time, Lee enjoys the great variety of outdoor activities in northeastern Minnesota and beyond.
