The Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless is pleased to announce Senta Leff as our 5th executive director. She comes with more than a decade of experience working across sectors to create opportunities for people in poverty to achieve their potential. She has worked most recently as program developer for the Family Supportive Housing Services division at the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation. Senta has served on the board of MCH since 2011.
In announcing, Heidi Johnson McAllister, MCH Board President said, “We are so excited to welcome Senta Leff into this new role to take MCH to it next level of excellence. Senta brings a breadth of experience with housing, homeless services, and MFIP. As staff in an MCH member organization, she’s seen the efficacy of coalition work. As a board member, she has helped shape MCH into the strong organization it is today.”
MCH was started 30 years ago, when large-scale homelessness first showed up in Minnesota, by service providers, civic leaders, faith community members, and people experiencing homelessness.
In the decades since, MCH has led state advocacy efforts on the range of issues connected to homelessness: creating a continuum of housing and services with the flexibility to meet people’s needs; advocating for a more effective welfare-to-work program; increasing public investment in affordable housing; and protecting and reforming health care delivery.
Liz Kuoppala, MCH outgoing executive director said, “I’m very pleased to hand the reigns of an organization I love so much and believe in so strongly to Senta Leff. I’ve seen firsthand her ability to balance a strong personal passion with strategic pragmatism to bring about real policy change. She is a fighter who gets things done.”
The inclusion of ideas from people who have experienced deep poverty has always been important to the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless. Senta follows in a long line of executive directors who have known hardship in their early lives. She was raised in St. Paul by a loving and resourceful single mother who sought to balance employment in low-wage jobs supplemented by public assistance with the full-time responsibilities of raising two children.
Senta Leff
“I am incredibly humbled and honored to be selected as MCH’s next executive director. I can’t wait to get started and look forward to meeting the Coalition’s broader community of allies and supporters. I understand the urgency of this work and am thrilled to lead MCH into its next chapter,” said Senta Leff, incoming MCH executive director.
Senta holds a degree in Women’s Studies from Mills College. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband, daughter, and step-son. She will begin work at MCH in early July.