Leadership Team
Deirdre Kanzer, Executive Director
Deirdre has worked in nonprofits for over 20 years. Although she has worn a variety of hats over the years, program management and community partnership building are her particular passions. Deirdre officially came on board as our Executive Director in September 2021.
Prior to joining the Diaper Bank, she served as Program Manager for the Midwest Region of Lutheran Volunteer Corps (LVC). At LVC, Deirdre oversaw all aspects of regional programming and operations. She managed relationships with a wide range of stakeholders, including placement organizations, donors, local alumni, support congregations, fellow faith-based service corps, and, of course, the volunteers themselves. She also organized annual events to increase visibility and raise funds for LVC and its community partners.
Deirdre’s work has always centered around building awareness of social and economic inequities and making systemic change. Deirdre is excited to bring all of these commitments and skills to her role at the Diaper Bank of Minnesota.
Deirdre has a BA in Religion and Latin American studies from St. Olaf College and an MA and MDiv, with a concentration in anti-racism leadership, from United Theological Seminary.
Christi Krautbauer, Board Chair
Christi joined the Diaper Bank of Minnesota board of directors in 2016 for a really simple reason: because she believes that no parent should have to choose between putting food on the table or keeping their little ones in clean diapers.
Michelle Winkleman, Board of Directors – Treasurer
Michelle is a certified public accountant licensed in the state of Minnesota. She has nearly 15 years of experience as an auditor, specializing in not-for-profits, healthcare, real estate, and internal control consulting. Michelle, her husband, and three children love to get outside in the woods, the lakes, and the snow of Minnesota.
Michelle joined the Diaper Bank because she knows from experience how immediate and urgent diaper needs are, and she wants to help create a world where no parent has to worry about keeping their child in a clean, fresh diaper.
Amy Smith, Board of Directors – Advocacy Chair
Amy is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker who has over 25 years of experience working in various non-profit social work settings in the Twin Cities Metro area. Amy is fluent in Spanish and has focused most of her career on work with refugees, immigrants and political asylum seekers. In her current position with Hennepin Healthcare Amy works with many economically under resourced families who struggle with diaper need. She is passionate about connecting families with necessary resources (including diapers!) as well as advocating for systems change that reduces barriers so that parents can raise happy and healthy children.
Jenna Alden, Board of Directors – Communications Chair
After being blessed with two beautiful babies, Jenna realized how challenging, stressful, and tiring (and wonderful, of course) it is to be a parent, and that’s without having to worry about providing daily needs like food and diapers. After learning about the prevalence of diaper need, she wanted to find a way to help address the issue, because no parent or guardian should have to worry about keeping their baby clean and dry, and joined the board in Aug 2022.
By day, Jenna is a Director in the Product Experience and Engineering Lab at West Monroe, and focuses on partnering with clients to identify and solve for their business evolution challenges and customer needs, innovate their digital products and processes, and create high performing product teams and organizations. She brings expertise in human centered design, and the value of understanding and delivering to user needs in ways that reach the right people at the right time.
Kari Bakos, Board of Directors – Diaper Drive Chair
Kari is currently a Director of Merchandising at Target. She has spent her career within multiple facets of retail from merchandising, supply chain, financial planning, and inventory with a proven track record driving profitable business growth and expertise in brand launches. Kari brings a strong, well-rounded business acumen that enables her to balance financials, operations, market insights, team and partner relationships to move complex work forward.
Outside of work, she and her husband have three young children. They love spending time with family and friends and being outside. Kari joined the Diaper Bank because she’s passionate about helping families and little ones and is inspired by the direct impact the Diaper Bank has on the community.
Amanda Charles, Board of Directors – Volunteer Chair
Amanda is a financial planner with Moxie Wealth Management, a boutique, full-service wealth management team with a mission to better the lives of their clients. She’s passionate about financial education and empowerment, and she loves working with clients to understand and take control of their financial lives.
Outside of work, Amanda is also a volunteer with BestPrep, a financial education nonprofit providing programs for grades 4-12 in Minnesota. She enjoys working on Habitat for Humanity builds around the Twin Cities in the summer, cross-country skiing in the winter, starting five different art projects and never finishing them and taking care of her (too many) houseplants.
Amanda joined the board of directors for the Diaper Bank of Minnesota because she’s inspired by the mission of helping families in our communities.
Jon Holmseth, Board of Directors
Jon has been volunteering at Diaper Bank events on a regular basis for over 4 years. Seeing the difference they make for families first-hand inspired him to find more ways to help. Jon is resolved to make the Diaper Bank’s volunteer experience and information systems as enjoyable and efficient as possible.