Birk has served as executive director for the George Family Foundation; interim president for the McKnight Foundation; co-executive director of the MN Early Learning Foundation; senior vice president and general counsel for Federated Insurance Companies; city attorney for the City of St. Paul under Mayor Norm Coleman; general counsel for AIG’s U.S. insurance business; and senior government affairs counsel and senior corporate counsel for The Saint Paul Companies. She holds a law degree from William Mitchell College of Law and a BA in philosophy from the University of Houston. She is also a certified Somatic Coach through the Strozzi Institute.
Birk serves on the MN Women’s Economic Roundtable board of directors, the dean’s advisory council at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, the Strozzi Institute Advisory Board and the MN Early Learning Foundation board of directors. She previously served on the McKnight Foundation board of directors, the Hamline University board of trustees, the International Alliance of Executive Women and was co-chair of the Center for Religious Inquiry with Vice President Walter Mondale at St. Mark’s Cathedral.
—Nominated by Lars Leafblad
