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It’s with excitement and gratitude that we officially announce a big transition for MinnCAN: this week, Deputy Director Nicholas Banovetz is transitioning to a new role on our national 50CAN team! Nicholas will be the first-ever director of engagement for 50CAN, where he will lead digital communications strategy, support the new 50CAN U Fellowship, and help develop excellent state campaigns—collaborating with executive directors, planning development projects and providing strategic input on 50CAN’s growth.
Nicholas, whom we all call “Bano,” joined MinnCAN as the founding public affairs manager in 2011, and was later promoted to deputy director. Bano has truly been the driving force behind many of MinnCAN’s most successful projects: he spearheaded our two groundbreaking statewide opinion polls; helped expand high-quality pre-K as a member on the MinneMinds executive committee; earned MinnCAN more than 300 media stories in three years; and planned and executed our Road to Success statewide tour last fall.
While we’ll miss his everyday contributions, Bano isn’t going far—he’ll still support us on many projects and will continue to office with us in Minneapolis.
We’re incredibly grateful for Nicholas’ amazing contributions to advancing public school excellence in Minnesota and are excited that he’ll now bring his skills and insights to the national scene. You can thank and congratulate Nicholas by dropping him a note at his new email address: nicholas.banovetz@50CAN.org.
And…
We’re absolutely thrilled to welcome Andrea Roethke, MinnCAN's new deputy director!
Andrea is an experienced policy professional with a passion for civic engagement and public service. Andrea recently returned to Minnesota after a decade living and working on anti-poverty initiatives in Baltimore. For the past eight years, she has worked for Job Opportunities Task Force, a statewide research and policy organization that develops targeted campaigns to remove barriers and increase access to opportunity for low-wage Maryland workers.
Prior to that, she worked as a research assistant at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies, as a mayoral fellow with the City of Baltimore, and as an AmeriCorps VISTA member right here in Minnesota. Andrea did her undergraduate work at the University of Minnesota and has a master's in public policy from Johns Hopkins University.
Please reach out and welcome Andrea to the MinnCAN family: andrea.roethke@minncan.org.