2026 MINN Summit

The MINN Summit is a full-day conference offering globally-minded individuals and local organizations a forum to connect, share, and learn. Since 2013, the Summit has brought together more than 1,800 participants, 200+ speakers, and nearly 400 unique organizations. The Summit provides exciting professional development opportunities, offers insight, and sparks conversations that will propel international development success in a changing world.

The keynote addresses, breakout sessions, and activities throughout the day are designed to connect international development professionals and supporters as they share best practices and learn about local, national, and cross-national trends in the field.

For questions regarding this event or to request accommodations, please contact the Program Team at [email protected].

Keynote Speaker

MINN is excited to announce Dana Mortenson as our 2026 keynote speaker. Dana is the Co-Founder of World Savvy, a national education nonprofit working to educate and engage youth as responsible global citizens. She led the organization as CEO for 23 years, supporting change agents in K-12 education to create more inclusive, adaptive schools that ensure all young people can develop the skills and dispositions needed to thrive in a more diverse, interconnected world. From 2002-2025 she shepherded the organization through significant national expansion, reaching nearly 1M+ young people 7,000+ educators and school leaders across 38 states and 28 countries, from offices based in Minneapolis, San Francisco and New York. In early 2026, she co-founded The Alloy Network to galvanize hyper-local democratic engagement in communities across the Upper Midwest, and provide frameworks for individuals to work across differences to solve real problems that impact their lives collectively.

Dana has been widely recognized as a leading social entrepreneur and education expert. She is an Ashoka Fellow, was named one of The New Leaders Council’s 40 under 40 Progressive American Leaders, and received the Tides Foundation’s Jane Bagley Lehman award for excellence in public advocacy in 2014. She is a frequent speaker on global education, social impact and social entrepreneurship at high-profile convenings nationally and internationally, and her work has been featured on PBS, the The New York Times, Edutopia, and a range of local and national media outlets covering education and innovation. She is a Board member and Advisor to multiple philanthropic, nonprofit and educational institutions, including Macalester College, The Alongside Network, Teaching for Equity, Empowerment and Community Healing (TEECH), The Mortenson Family Foundation, the Millenium Campus Network, The Institute for Humane Education, Tilting Futures, and the TransAction Alliance, among others. She received her Masters in International Affairs with an emphasis on Economic and Political Development from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), and her undergraduate degree in International Relations from Connecticut College.

Her work always works to push progress at the intersection of education, democracy and human rights, and supports organizations and individuals looking to couple passion and vision with strategy and pragmatic thinking about doing the most good.

Agenda

MINN is currently recruiting presenters for our breakout sessions. If you are interested in learning more and submitting a proposal to become a breakout speaker, please visit https://forms.gle/Cb2DyLJMQTmdU4Bg9