Michelle Chalmers

Michelle Chalmers
Interim Executive Director

Michelle is a passionate, proven non-profit leader who has led programs and organizations that support children and families in Minnesota since 1990. She designed and led a federal demonstration project that increased rates of adoption for teens, co-founded and led a non-profit providing permanency services to older youth and families who face barriers to equity in child welfare, and worked in policy at the state level. She is committed to centering the voices and perspective of youth and families in her work, and has developed and implemented practices, policies and interventions that advance social justice and opportunity by working to dismantle systemic barriers facing families. Michelle’s non-profit leadership skills have been strengthened by her integral role in the founding of two non-profits. Michelle earned her MSW from Augsburg College and a B.A. from Colorado College. She is a Licensed Independent Social Worker (LISW). Michelle grew up in Colorado and came to Minnesota in 1990. She is most content sitting in a canoe in the Boundary Waters, chasing northern lights or knee deep in Lake Superior searching for agates. She loves listening to live music and takes any opportunity she can to travel. Over the years she has been a foster and host home parent to six teens who are now adults. Michelle aged out of the foster care system in Colorado and values the way her lived experience reminds her to keep listening to all perspectives in her work.