The Sheltering Arms Foundation, a supporting organization of the Episcopal Church of Minnesota, is pleased to announce that two women leaders have joined its board of trustees. The 2022-2023 class of trustees includes Esther Garubanda of St. Paul and Emily Reichenbach of Edina. The foundation’s newly elected board president for fiscal year 2022-2023 is Cecily Cutshall of Minneapolis, a member of Sts. Luke & James Episcopal Church who is a senior manager in IT at Huntington Bank.

The new additions bring the Sheltering Arms’ board roster to 19 trustees. Trustees, who serve up to two three-year terms, are women members of the Episcopal Church in Minnesota who volunteer their time and expertise to guide the foundation. Board members are selected for their diverse skills, backgrounds and experiences, and represent congregations throughout Minnesota. They are responsible for being the fiduciary and strategic leaders of the organization.

“Our new trustees will be jumping in as we launch into a strategic planning year. We have spent the last several years on board education, making sure the trustees have a solid foundation and common understanding around diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, and how those reach into all the different corners of who we are and what we do. From grant-making, to advocacy, to community connections. Now we want to take the knowledge we have been building and apply it as our lens to plan how we will be working and serving the kids in Minnesota over the next five years,” said new board president Cecily Cutshall, who has a BA in psychology and French from the College of William and Mary and an MS in conflict resolution from George Mason University. She has served on Sheltering Arms’ board since 2018.

“We have been intentional about the context of our work, specifically recognizing that we are here in Minnesota, with a history of being a very segregated state, both racially and socio-economically, and being the site of the murder of George Floyd and the social justice up-swell,” Cutshall continued. “We are also conscious of the pandemic and the various situations our community partners are in and the children they serve. As board members, we are humbled to see the remarkable work that is being done all across the state to serve Minnesota’s children, the passionate and wonderful support that kids are getting.”

Esther Garubanda, resident of St. Paul and member of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, has served as a board member for the University Episcopal Campus Ministry. Prior to that she ran a tutoring program at St. Matthew’s and was a board member of the Hope Multi-Purpose board helping girls in Uganda get an education. She earned a BA in sociology from the University of Minnesota. She is currently working for Minneapolis College in Minneapolis as an enrollment advisor, helping students navigate the different parts of college. Previously, she worked as the post-secondary education (PSEO) coordinator at Minneapolis College. She also was an associate with the Get Ready-Gear Up program at the Office of Higher Education in Minneapolis and St. Paul schools, working with students in high school helping them learn about their college choices and helping them prepare to apply and attend college.

Emily Reichenbach, resident of Edina and member of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, volunteers at her children’s school. She has volunteered as not-for-profit arts consultant with the Chicago Arts & Business Council, served on St. Stephen’s vestry, and served as a contributing member and grants committee member of GivingWMN. She earned a BA in art history from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, and an MA in arts journalism from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is a freelance writer currently assisting architecture and design firms with marketing writing. Previously she worked as a firmwide writer for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP in Chicago, overseeing marketing and public relations content. Prior to that she served as editorial assistant of Architecture MN magazine and led the American Institute of Architects’ AIA MN Awards program. She is a second generation Sheltering Arms trustee, as her mother was on the board in the 1990s and was board president in 1995.

The new trustees and board president assume their positions as 43 nonprofit organizations supported by Sheltering Arms’ 2022-2023 grants work to meet the needs of at-risk children. The foundation is investing $450,000 this year in programs that serve Minnesota’s most vulnerable children – focusing on direct service programs in early childhood and out-of-school-time youth development, as well as statewide advocacy campaigns designed to improve Minnesota’s policies that impact children and their families. Areas served by the 43 Sheltering Arms grantees include Blooming Prairie, Brooklyn Center, Brooklyn Park, Duluth, Mankato, Maplewood, Minneapolis, Minnetonka, Northfield, Red Wing, Rochester, St. Louis Park, and St. Paul.

The Sheltering Arms Inclusion Statement
The Sheltering Arms Foundation celebrates the diversity of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, physical ability, class, religion and geographic location of the children and families it serves across Minnesota. We seek to create equal access to resources in order to build a just society in which all children may reach their full potential.

About the Sheltering Arms Foundation
The mission of the Sheltering Arms Foundation is to invest in the lives of children and help them reach their full potential. Based in Minneapolis, the foundation funds nonprofit organizations and supports policies that benefit Minnesota children and their families who have the least access to resources. Since its inception as a grantmaking foundation in 1983, the foundation has provided more than 1,390 grants totaling just over $17.25 million. The next deadline for grant applications is in January 2023. For information about submitting a grant request, volunteering, or donating to the foundation, visit https://sheltering-arms.org/ or call 612-871-9210 (toll-free: 866-871-9210).

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CONTACT: Denise Mayotte, Executive Director, dmayotte@sheltering-arms.org, 612-871-9210