Staff

Katie Blanchard
Program Associate, Rural Enterprise Center

Katie Blanchard focuses on agripreneur training and evaluation for the Rural Enterprise Center. She also serves as Midwest Coordinator for the Real Food Challenge, a national organization uniting students to support a just and sustainable food system through institutional procurement of real food. Her work comes full circle in Northfield, where she is supporting student efforts at Carleton and St. Olaf Colleges to source food from the aspiring immigrant farmers she is supporting through the Agripreneur Training Program.
Katie is a graduate of Carleton College, where she created a special major in Human Ecology. She is an aspiring farmer who is particularly passionate about diverse stakeholder engagement in dialogue and action-planning for just and sustainable community food systems.

Reginaldo (Regi) Haslett-Marroquin
Program Director, Rural Enterprise Center

Reginaldo (Regi) Haslett-Marroquin launched the Rural Enterprise Center program of Main Street Project in 2006, but has a long history of successful transnational entrepreneurial leadership. He began working on economic development projects with indigenous Guatemalan communities in 1988, and has served as a consultant for the United Nations Development Program's Bureau for Latin America and advisor to the World Council of Indigenous Peoples. He founded the Fair Trade Federation and co-created Peace Coffee, a successful fair-trade coffee company, and then went on to work with woodland owners in the Midwest and Guatemala where he organized several stewardship-certified cooperative forestry businesses.

Regi was recognized for his work in 1996 when he was named one of the Twin Cities International Citizens of the Year. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Northfield Area Foundation and is an active member of the Rotary Club of Northfield. A Guatemalan native, Regi received his agronomy degree from the Central National School of Agriculture and studied at the Universidad de San Carlos in Guatemala. He also received a bachelor's degree in International Business Administration from Augsburg College, Minneapolis.

Bob Kell
Program Associate, Rural Enterprise Center

Bob Kell manages the new business incubator program and farm sites at the Rural Enterprise Center. Before joining Main Street Project, Bob served as director of the Welcome Center (Faribault Diversity Coalition) for ten years, developing resettlement support services with Latino, Somali and other immigrant members of the Faribault community, and coordinating Coalition efforts to promote dialogue and cultural understand. Prior to that, he was the program manager for Catholic Charities Rural Outreach with families in Rice and Le Suer counties. Bob is a committed advocate for immigrant opportunities and community collaboration.

Danielle Mkali
Program Director, Media Justice

Danielle Mkali leads the organization’s media justice program efforts. She has more than ten years of experience training and developing young organizers, most recently as an organizer, trainer and curriculum developer for the Center for Democracy and Citizenship at Augsburg College (previously at the University of Minnesota). Prior to that she served as co-lead facilitator and organizer with HOPE Community in its leadership development program. She continues to serve on the advisory councils of that program, and on Metropolitan Community and Technical College’s community development program.She also serves on the grant review committee for Headwaters Foundation for Justice. Danielle received organizer leadership training through the Gamaliel Foundation in Oakland, CA.

Steven Renderos
Senior Fellow, Media Justice

Steven Renderos supports Main Street Project’s media justice policy work. He helped lead the program’s growth for more than two years, before joining the Center for Media Justice full-time as National Organizer. Previously, Steven served as Project Coordinator of the Minnesotano Media Empowerment Project, an initiative of the Department of Chicano Studies at the University of Minnesota focused on improving the quality and quantity of media coverage and representation of Latinos in Minnesota. He currently serves on the boards of Organizing Apprenticeship Project, La Asamblea de Derechos Civiles, and Center for Media Justice.

Niel Ritchie
Executive Director

Niel Ritchieis the founder and Executive Director of Main Street Project and a long-time rural and social justice advocate. Previously, he served as a policy analyst and national organizer at the Minneapolis-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, and prior to that as executive director of Minnesota PIRG and development director of the Rural Education Resource Center. He also helped found the Minneapolis-based Alliance for Metropolitan Stability. Niel is on the board of directors of the Rural Community Assistance Partnership and the Alliance for Aviation Across America, and directs the work of the League of Rural Voters. In addition, he serves on the steering committee of the National Rural Assembly.
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Kat Vann
Director, Communications & Development

Kat Vann joined Main Street Project in 2008 as director of communications and development. She has more than 25 years of strategic communications planning and implementation experience with both corporate and nonprofit organizations. Kat is pleased to focus her efforts on supporting underserved residents in making their voices heard.