ClintonSchool

Trista Harris is nationally known as a passionate advocate for new leaders in the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors. She is a leading voice for Generations X and Y and seeks to create professional development opportunities throughout the sector. Trista has been featured on CNN and her work has been covered by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, the New York Times, Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal, Career Builder, and numerous social sector blogs. She writes about generational change in the foundation field in her blog, New Voices Of Philanthropy and is an international speaker on working across generations to create social change.

In her professional life, Trista is the Executive Director of the Headwaters Foundation for Justice. Headwaters is a community foundation with a mission to act as a catalyst for social, racial, economic and environmental justice. She oversees the Foundation’s grantmaking, communications, fund development and investment management activities.

Trista came to the Headwaters Foundation from the Saint Paul Foundation, where she was a program officer and provided leadership on the Foundation’s initiatives related to civic engagement and philanthropy, as well as managed both scholarship funds and a grantmaking portfolio that reflected the Foundation’s interest in comprehensive solutions to community issues. Prior to her work at the Saint Paul Foundation, Trista was the Advancement Director for Portico Healthnet, an innovative nonprofit that provides health coverage and education to uninsured Minnesotans.

A native Minnesotan, Trista received her Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Howard University and her Master’s in Public Policy degree, with a focus on philanthropy and nonprofit effectiveness, from the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota.