Donald Joseph is the Deputy Director of the Neighborhood and Community Relations Department for the City of Minneapolis. This department helps the city better connect with its residents and communities through effective, culturally appropriate engagement strategies, as well as the city’s 70 neighborhood organizations. Donald is a seasoned executive with extensive experience in equity projects, human resources and performance measurement. He is highly regarded for collaborating and building relationships with key stakeholders and organizations, as well as for his ability to adapt to change and deliver results.
Having spent most of his career at Fortune 500 companies including IBM, Citigroup, and Target, Donald made the decision to transition from business to public service to lead the Innovation Team for the City of Minneapolis. Donald co-authored an “Initiatives Portfolio,” based on the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Innovation Delivery approach. The “Initiatives Portfolio” aimed to address race issues and disparities in rental housing, as well as drive results by collaborating with city government partners and stakeholders, non-profits, as well as residents and property owners, to better understand community needs and help prioritize initiatives to improve core services.
Prior to joining the City of Minneapolis, Donald Joseph served as a Senior Business Partner for Target Corporation. He worked hard to support the organizational goal, of creating a more diverse and inclusive workforce. Donald helped transform data into meaningful and decisive strategies – diversifying the workforce, retaining more employees and helping management identify reputation risks to the company.
Donald Joseph has a bachelor’s degree in Finance from Pace University and earned a master’s degree in Human Resources Management from New York University. Don has extensive board leadership experience, having served on the boards of One2One, which provides mentoring programs to students struggling with school, and the Network for the Development of Children of African Descent (NdCAD), which offers literacy and cultural enrichment programs and services for children, youth, and adults.