Engage Winona announces appointment of executive director

Engage Winona announced today the appointment of Marcia Ratliff as the nonprofit organization’s next executive director. After an extensive search that drew candidates from across the Midwest, Engage Winona’s board of directors appointed Ratliff by unanimous consent.

“Marcia Ratliff is an incredibly creative, insightful, and vibrant leader with strong skills in community-building, inclusive practice, and placemaking,” said Josiah Litant, president of the board. “Throughout the search process, Marcia’s passion for Winona, its people, and its future were clear, and we will benefit greatly from her vision moving forward.”

Prior to her appointment, Ratliff held a position as Youth Services Associate at the Winona Public Library. She was a 2021 recipient of a Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council grant for her poetry work, torn paper poems. She additionally spent two years with the United States Peace Corps in South Africa, where she wrote and led a grant to work alongside the local community in establishing a new school library. Prior to that she was a wellness and environment reporter with the Winona Daily News.

“I’ve been a member of the Winona community for nearly 10 years now,” said Ratliff, “and there is a clarity that comes from living alongside each other with this proximity, held in as we are by bluffs and river. I find something new and something familiar every day here. I’m incredibly excited to have this opportunity to give back to a place I love so much and help deepen our connections to this place and to each other.”

Ratliff succeeds Brian Voerding, Engage Winona’s founding executive director, who served the organization over its first five years. Voerding left in June to serve as Vice President for Inclusive Leadership at the Initiative Foundation in Little Falls, MN. The board of Engage Winona conducted a search this past summer to fill the position, with a seven-person search committee comprising board members and key community stakeholders leading the work.

Ratliff received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Winona State University and has been an active volunteer with the Winona Fine Arts Commission and the Teen Voices Project. She will begin her work as executive director on September 27. 

Engage Winona is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that drives equitable civic action and social change by working to ensure everyone has access, voice, and power in community planning, decision-making, and changemaking.

Photo by Sydney Swanson