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The International Fellowship Program has established an ongoing relationship with Hennepin County, Minnesota for the purpose of leveraging knowledge of public management in local government and establishing the exchange of ideas and practice across international borders.

Program Elements of Hennepin County Mentorship Program

• Mentors: Within the context of this relationship, each International Fellow is matched with a Hennepin County staff person with similar areas of interest and expertise. Mentors and mentees have the opportunity to share best practices in areas of professional work and build international colleagueship.
• Overview of Hennepin County Public Policy and Administration: Hennepin County offers a full-day orientation to its services and business lines to the International Fellows including personal welcome by county commissioners, county administrator, county attorney, public defender, and sheriff.
• Hennepin County Leadership Management Academy: International Fellows have the opportunity to collaborate with the Hennepin County Leadership Management Academy in order to share best practices with identified leaders.

Hennepin County Mentors

Ana Memedovich was born and raised in Belgrade, Serbia.  She has lived in the United States since 1991.  Ana received a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Sociology and a Master’s degree in Sociology with emphasis on Research Methods from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

Currently, Ms. Memedovich is with Planning, Policy and Quality Assurance service area in the Hennepin County’s Human Services and Public Health Department.  She is a Principal Planning Analyst involved with department-wide horizontal initiatives and serves as the Project Manager for the Case Management Redesign effort. 

Her experience and interests involve qualitative and quantitative research, data analysis and interpretation, program development and evaluation, various aspects of planning and policy work as well as improving business processes, service delivery and collaborative leadership. 

More broadly, Memedovich continues to maintain strong interest in global issues such as oppression and human rights, identity and globalization.

Carol Strong is the Minneapolis Election Judge Coordinator. Ms. Strong received a degree in Business Management from the University of Minnesota. She currently serves as Minneapolis Election Judge Coordinator where she recruits, selects and assigns over 2,000 election judges. Her interests include travel and numerous foreign exchange students and teachers, and she is a Master Gardener and Tree Care Advisor through the University of Minnesota.

Chester Cooper is from the small town of Paulsboro, New Jersey.  He earned a Bachelor's Degree from the University of Minnesota in 1983.  I have been

He has been employed with Hennepin County since November 1985. Most recently, in August 2008 he was selected as Corrections Area Director with Adult Services in Community Corrections.

He began his career with Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office as a Detention Deputy working in the Adult Detention Division. He was promoted to Deputy Sheriff  in  1990  and  served  in  that  capacity  while  being  assigned  to  the  Adult Detention Division, Court Security, Narcotics and Sheriff's Administration.
In November 1994, he was awarded the Medal of Honor by the Minnesota Public Safety Service Awards Committee. In April 2000 he attended the prestigious FBI National Academy, which is a three-month management course hosted by the FBI, held in Quantico, Virginia.

In  1995  he  was  promoted  to  Sergeant  assigned  to the Administrative Division and subsequently promoted to Lieutenant assigned to the Human Resources Division; Captain assigned to the Administrative Division and lastly, was appointed to Inspector in 2003.  In that capacity, he was in charge of the Administrative Services and the Detention/Court Services Bureau.

Jill Alverson is the Hennepin County Auditor/Treasurer. She was appointed to this position by the Hennepin County Board in July 2006. As County Auditor/Treasurer, Ms. Alverson has responsibility for the Property Tax, Public Records, Elections, Survey, GIS and Service Center Divisions of the County. Prior to this appointment, Ms. Alverson served for six years as the Hennepin County Purchasing Manager. Ms. Alverson has worked for Hennepin County for 29 years and has served in a variety of administrative and managerial positions. For approximately twenty years she worked in the human services area of the County.

Joel Settles currently leads the Natural Resources Unit of the Department of Environmental Services.  The unit helps preserve and protect natural resources in Hennepin County by providing technical assistance and financial incentives to individuals and local governments. Mr. Settles has been actively involved in water resource management in Hennepin County for over 25 years.  He has been with the county for 14 years. Prior to working for Hennepin County, he worked for the Hennepin Conservation District.

Mr. Settles has an M.S. degree in Limnology from the University of Minnesota and a B.A. degree from the  University of Nebraska.

Karen L. Marquardt was appointed Hennepin County Director of Internal Audit in November of 2005. Ms. Marquardt holds an Accounting degree from Michigan State University, obtained her CPA license early in her career and more recently obtained the Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) designation. Ms. Marquardt is an active member of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) and the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA). Ms.Marquardt has been with Hennepin County since 1991, serving in accounting and audit positions at Hennepin County Medical Center and the Office of Budget and Finance prior to her position as Director of Internal Audit for Hennepin County

Luanne Nyberg serves as Senior Policy Analyst in Hennepin County’s Human Services and Public Health Department. She has spent her life as a low-income and health advocate, founding the Children's Defense Fund Minnesota Office, and serving as Public Health Advisor to the Minnesota Attorney General’s tobacco team during the landmark tobacco suit which resulted in public health gains and $6.2 billion for the state.  Other accomplishments include: passage of the first-in-the nation Children's Health Plan, Medicaid eligibility expansions, and the creation of MinnesotaCare; two decades of child support improvements that raised Minnesota to best-in-the nation among the 50 states; securing hundreds of millions of state dollars to supplement federal funding for child care, Head Start, WIC, and school breakfasts, MFIP welfare reform, passage and expansion of state low income tax credits tied to children, and creation of a state emergency jobs programs (MEED) that employed tens of thousands of state residents during recession in the early 1980s. Ms. Nyberg holds a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University and lectures at the University of Minnesota.

Luanne Laurentz is the Learning and Organization Development Manager for Hennepin County Human Resources. She is responsible for providing direction for countywide leadership development programs and training classes, recognition programs and the learning management system. She also oversees organization development consulting services including individual and workplace assessment, coaching, team building, mediation, change management, service improvement and strategic planning. She received her Ph.D. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from the University of Minnesota and has been with Hennepin County Human Resources since 1989.

Mark Chapin is the Chief Deputy for the Hennepin County Attorney's Office. As Chief Deputy, he is responsible for supervising three civil divisions including Human Services, Civil and Child Protection as well as financial and human resource matters. He has served the Hennepin County Attorney's Office for twenty-five years. He is a magna cum laude graduate of the William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Richard Johnson is currently the County Administrator for Hennepin County, Minnesota. Over the last 25+ years, he has served as Finance Director and City Manager of a medium sized suburb and the Finance Director of a growing suburban county of 300,000 people. He has also been the Chief Financial and Operating Officer of a Metropolitan Agency serving the entire twin cities area for regional planning, transit service and waste water treatment. Hennepin County is a large urban county with over 1.1 million residents. He has advanced degrees in Public Administration and Economics.

Paula Williams-Sanders works with Human Service Area Manager-Community Services, Community Services includes Public Health Promotion; Office of Multicultural Services; Omniciye-Little Earth Project; Faith Based Community Initiatives; Volunteer Services; Street Case Management and Community Connections.

Paula has worked for Hennepin County for 23 years, her career includes work in Adult/Juvenile Corrections; Social Work-Kinship; Legal Services; Children, Youth and Family Services; Community Outreach; Behaviroal Health; Crisis Services; Public Health Promotion; Multicultural Services and Volunteer Services.