Meet the Team

  • FOUNDING PRESIDENT

    Bill is the founding president of The John and Denise Graves Family Foundation. As President of the Foundation, Bill implements the Graves family’s vision for impact, stewarding the foundation’s resources to better realize its vision. Bill also acts as the face of the foundation, ensuring that it is well understood in our community and that it is building partnerships with other community leaders to expand the foundation’s impact.

    Prior to launching the foundation, Bill worked in the technology and creative consulting sectors as a business analyst, writer, producer, and resource manager. He lives in Northeast Minneapolis with his wife, Mary, and two daughters.

  • DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS

    As Director of Operations, Danielle handles grant administration in addition to the day-to-day operations that keep the Foundation running smoothly. She works hard to create efficiencies for the team and for grantees, passionately believes in the vision of the Graves Foundation, and is always looking to create systems that can increase impact.

    Danielle has a B.S. in Public Health from St. Catherine University and a strong belief that addressing social determinants of health is critical to improving inequities of all kinds. She is also a Nationally Registered EMT, and prior to her work at the Foundation, she worked in various Emergency Departments throughout the Twin Cities where she saw the need for upstream interventions firsthand.

    Danielle lives in St. Paul with her partner, their three teens, and the prettiest dog on the planet.

  • EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GRAVES RESIDENCY

    Kyrra is the founding executive director of the Graves Residency, an initiative that brings together parents and youth with lived experience, service providers, and policy makers across sectors and levels of government, at the intersection of housing stability, education, foster care, and youth development. Kyrra’s passion for developing and supporting leaders to fulfill their visions for social change played a lead role in developing projects and organizations like PERIS Hill Housing, Foster Advocates, the Advancing Equity Coalition, and Avivo Village, a skill-set and history of successful social innovation she brings to the Graves Residency.

    Her career has also included work in youth development, affordable housing, education policy, community and political organizing, professional coaching, and social work. After graduating from Minneapolis Public Schools, she earned her B.A. from Northwestern University and an M.S.W. at Hunter College.

    When Kyrra isn’t organizing something, she loves taking photos, coaxing plants to grow, hunting for good finds on eBay, and taking pictures of her husband, two kids and dog Leaf.

  • VICE PRESIDENT, COO

    DeSeandra serves as the Vice President, COO of the Foundation, overseeing the foundation’s day-to-day operations and staff management. DeSeandra also leads the foundation’s grantmaking work, advancing the foundation’s giving strategy and assessing its impact.

    For more than fifteen years, DeSeandra worked in Organizational Leadership, focusing on Human Resource Management, in nonprofit organizations. DeSeandra is passionate about her family, career, and personal efforts to celebrate and uplift leaders in community.

  • PORTFOLIO MANAGER

    Lisa holds the primary relationship with our existing portfolio of grantees, ensuring the foundation maintains a warm connection with organizations we fund. Lisa also facilitates our participatory grantmaking, including the Minneapolis Educator Leadership Awards (MELA) program, as well as our hosted and sponsored events.

    In her previous role, spanning nearly a decade, Lisa served as Student Services Manager at Walker|West Music Academy. Lisa also has a rich background as an on air personality and host in various roles, including: Morning Show & Midday Radio Host at 89.9 KMOJ “The People Station” Weekend Radio Host at Go95.3 “The Modern HipHop Channel”, as well as the ‘In Arena Host’ for The WNBA’s MN Lynx franchise.

    Beyond being passionate about her career, Lisa is deeply grounded in her faith and cherishes quality time spent with her family and friends.

  • EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,
    PERIS FOUNDATION

    PROJECT MANAGER, GRAVES FOUNDATION

    As Project Manager for the Graves Foundation, Carla uses her skills in strategy, logistics, and collaboration to turn ideas into realities. Along with her work at Graves, Carla is Executive Director of the PERIS Foundation which oversees and champions PERIS Hill, an intentional housing community that supports and empowers young people who have experienced foster care to thrive.

    Prior to her work at Graves and PERIS, Carla worked in the non-profit sector as founder and director of an organization committed to promoting gender equity and inclusion in faith spaces. She has an M.A. in English from the University of Nebraska.

    Carla lives in Minneapolis with her two kids and two cats.