Marcia is a Consultant whose practice includes advocacy strategy, issue campaign design, organizing, lobbying, and media training, curriculum development, and facilitation. She works with nonprofits, foundations, and academic centers on initiatives to advance advocacy. Ms.Avner serves as a Senior Fellow at the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits (MCN) where she was Public Policy Director from 1996-2010. She is also a faculty member and Coordinator of the Nonprofit Concentration in the Masters in Advocacy and Political Leadership Program (MAPL) at the University of Minnesota-Duluth.
She teaches courses in the relationships between government and nonprofits, nonprofit advocacy and organizing, and the role of art in social change movements. Ms. Avner has authored The Lobbying and Advocacy Handbook for Nonprofit Organizations: Shaping Public Policy at the State and Local Level (2002), and The Board Member’s Guide to Lobbying and Advocacy (2004) published by Fieldstone Alliance, among others. Ms. Avner is also a board member of the Bauman Foundation, Friends of the Mississippi River, Minnesota American Community Survey (MACS), and Wellstone Action.
