Staff

Ann Kaner-Roth, Executive Director
Ann Kaner-Roth was appointed executive director of Project 515 and Project 515 Education Campaign in January 2010. She holds a master’s of social work focused in Public Policy from Boston University and a bachelor of arts in Political Science and Criminal Justice from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has worked in the public policy and social services arenas for almost 20 years, including as Field Representative for then-Assemblywoman Carole Migden, a state representative to the California State Assembly for the San Francisco area; the Massachusetts Gay & Lesbian Political Caucus; the AIDS Legal Referral Panel; Family Support Services of the Bay Area; and the Rock County Department of Social Services in Janesville, Wisconsin.

Prior to her work with Project 515, she was associate director of the Jewish Community Foundation of the Minneapolis Jewish Federation, which oversees close to $60 million in assets. From 1999-2008, Kaner-Roth served as the executive director of Child Care WORKS, a statewide grassroots nonprofit child care and early education advocacy organization, implementing a strong grassroots organizing model as well as substantive legislative efforts.

Kaner-Roth currently serves on the national board of directors of Family Equality Council as well as its Midwest Advisory Council (Rainbow Families, the Midwest Office of Family Equality Council). She is a founding and ex-officio board member of Ready 4 K. Kaner-Roth was also a 2006-07 Humphrey Institute Policy Fellow and the 2008 recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the Minnesota Association for the Education of Young Children. She resides in Minneapolis with her husband and three children.

 

Eric Jensen, Communications Director
Eric Jensen joined Project 515 as communications director in November 2011. He holds a master’s degree in journalism and mass communications from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a bachelor’s degree in literary studies from Beloit College.  Eric has more than 12 years of marketing and communications experience in both corporate and non-profit settings.

Eric comes to Project 515 after eight years at General Mills in the corporation’s promotion marketing organization.  At General Mills, he worked with some of the best-known and best-loved consumer brands in the country. These include Cheerios, Betty Crocker, Nature Valley, Green Giant and Yoplait. Eric’s General Mills experience included a sales assignment working with retailers including Target, Dollar General, K-Mart, Sam’s Club, Walgreens, and CVS. He also worked on several cause-marketing campaigns including Box Tops for Education and the “Pink Together” breast-cancer awareness campaign with Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

From 1999 to 2003, Eric worked in the membership department at the Science Museum of Minnesota, including serving as membership director starting in 2001. His additional non-profit experience includes being an event coordinator for Minnesota AIDS Project, the youth program director for the Atwood Community Center in Madison, WI, and the summer program director for Green Bay YMCA Camp U-Nah-Li-Ya.

Eric lives in South Minneapolis with his partner of more than 15 years, Joel Hoekstra.

Andrea Hanson, Administrative/Program Assistant
Andrea Hanson was hired as the Administrative Assistant/Program Assistant in January 2011. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in English Teaching from Metropolitan State University in 2009. Prior to joining Project 515, Andrea worked at White Bear Unitarian Universalist Church, an LGBT welcoming and affirming congregation in Mahtomedi, MN as a Religious Education Assistant and Interim Business Assistant. Her work at the church included working with District 202, Project Home, Heifer International, Pennies for Peace, Fifty Lanterns, and the Twin Cities Pride Festival and Parade. Andrea is also a member of the UUA sponsored public advocacy campaign Standing on the Side of Love, which works to end all identity-based oppression through courageous acts of love.

Andrea is an active volunteer at East Metro Women’s Council, an affordable housing center in White Bear Lake, MN and coordinated their 2010 Resident Holiday Party. In the summer of 2009 she interned at Redleaf Press, a nonprofit early childhood educational press. In her free time, Andrea reads voraciously (a by-product of an English major) and spends time with her dog Loki in White Bear Lake, MN, where she resides.

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