Shaun Hainey joined the Northspan team in July 2023 as a consultant and program manager for Northland Connection, which hosts a database of commercial real estate in the region along with many free online tools for data and trend analysis. He provides support to Northspan partners through strategic planning, economic analysis, demographic data, information on area real estate, and more.
Shaun brings a varied background that ranges from lobbying for broadband and education, to policy work, nonprofit management, real estate law, and property valuation. He is is a graduate of the University of Minnesota–Morris and has also completed leadership training through the Gamaliel Foundation. He is currently pursuing certification in Technology of Participation facilitation methods through the Institute of Cultural Affairs, emphasizing focused conversations, consensus workshops, and action planning.
How did you join the Northspan team? What drew you to your role?
Having reached a point in my life where I was looking for more meaningful impact in the work that I do, I spent three days in the woods reflecting on what I wanted to do, where I could do the most for the greater good, and what truly utilized my talents. I came to a clear conclusion that community and economic development was where I wanted to be. Two days after discussing with a friend in workforce development, he sent me a link for the job opening at Northspan; the timing was perfect on both ends and the rest is history.
I’ve spent a lot of my personal time over the years working in community and organizational development and I’m glad that now I get to spend the majority instead of the margins of my time working to improve the region’s prosperity.
Can you share a bit about some of the projects you’ve been working on?
I enjoy the range of impact from working with the East Range Joint Powers Board just minutes from home to the further reaches of northern Minnesota where I’m not as familiar and have been building new networks for myself. It’s also been great to learn a new methodology for strategic planning and share some of my own approach developed through involvement in faith-based initiatives which focuses on shared values as the cornerstone of organizing.
One of the newer projects I’ve been focused on is our partnership with the USDA for the Northeast Minnesota Regional Food Business Center program. We’ve been helping people get grant funding to strengthen regional food networks and have had a number of successes so far. It’s involved a lot of outreach with farmers, distributors, restaurants, and many others who want to educate consumers, see more investment in infrastructure, and change the way financing works around our food systems.
What’s your favorite part about working with Northspan?
I really enjoy networking to bring people and resources together to maximize impact, as well as getting to know about initiatives in process and what I can do to help them grow.
I also don’t get tired of telling people how good it is for morale to work with a competent team where everyone’s pulling together in the same direction. It’s amazing the empowering effect of walking into a group of effective people clear in what they want to do and actively seeking ways to do it better.
You can connect with Shaun at shainey@northspan.org or (218) 481-7737