Face to Face Day 2026: In Community, We Thrive

February 26
Event

Face to Face Day 2026: In Community, We Thrive

On Tuesday, April 28, 2026, join us for Face to Face Day 2026, an evening celebrating youth, belonging, and the power of community to create lasting change.

This year’s theme, In Community, We Thrive, reflects a powerful truth: thriving is collective. When young people are surrounded by community, they do not just navigate challenges. They grow, lead, heal, and build futures filled with possibility.

Event Details
Tuesday, April 28, 2026
5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Saint Paul College
235 Marshall Ave, St. Paul, MN 55102

Face to Face Day is our annual celebration of youth and the anniversary of Face to Face. It is a time to gather, reflect on our shared impact, and celebrate the relationships that make thriving possible.

At Face to Face, belonging fuels resilience and growth. When young people thrive, families thrive. When families thrive, communities thrive. When communities thrive, systems change.

Throughout the evening, guests will enjoy appetizers and connection with the Face to Face community, hear inspiring stories from our Youth Leadership Council, and celebrate the volunteers and supporters who make this work possible.

Each year, more than 4,000 youth build on their strengths and pursue their aspirations with the support of Face to Face. Your presence helps strengthen the community that surrounds them.

We hope you will join us for this free community event and help celebrate the power of belonging in action.

Questions? Contact development@face2face.org or 651-772-5555.

Together, in community, we thrive.

Hanna Getachew-Kreusser, MA

Executive Director

Hanna Getachew-Kreusser has been with Face to Face since 2015 leading programs. She assumed her current position leading the organization in 2018 after a comprehensive national search.

With over 25 years of nonprofit administration experience, Hanna Getachew-Kreusser is a visionary leader whose career reflects a steadfast commitment to equity, innovation, and community transformation. With a distinguished record of service and recognition, she has consistently demonstrated the power of inclusive leadership to drive systemic change.

At Face to Face, Hanna has led with vision and strategy through unprecedented times. Under her direction, the organization has grown, expanding services to meet the needs of the community, including increasing youth housing from 16 to 80 units, and now serves over 5,100 youth annually. During the pandemic and the reckoning following George Floyd’s murder, Face to Face not only sustained but expanded essential services. Today, Hanna leads the development of a 24-unit deeply affordable housing project, with 22% of the $14 million goal already raised.

Hanna is known not only for vision but for execution—mobilizing partners, resources, and systems.

Hanna is an active community leader, engaged in working to change systems that negatively impact marginalized communities. She believes in developing meaningful partnerships to get to the root causes of the problems communities strive to resolve.

Beyond Face to Face, she co-founded REAL, Inc., a nonprofit strengthening African communities through healing, connection, and empowerment. She also serves as a Qualified Neutral Restorative Mediator for the State of Minnesota, is Mental Health Practitioner, and a soon-to-be Adverse Childhood Experience, ACE Interface Trainer—bridging systems change with personal healing.

Currently serving on the Workforce Innovation Board of Ramsey County, Hanna brings strategic insight to regional workforce development, ensuring that economic growth is both equitable and sustainable. Her long-standing roles on Boards and Commissions including St. Paul Ramsey County Community Health Advisory Committee underscores her dedication

to community well-being. As a member of the Ramsey County (Re)Imagining Justice for Youth leadership team, she works to reframe youth justice through a lens of compassion, opportunity, and empowerment.

Her leadership and impact have been recognized by Twin Cities Business Magazine “Notable BIPOC Executive”, the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal “Black Leaders You Should Know”, and the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota “Rest Up Award”. She has also been featured in the Pioneer Press, Finance & Commerce, VoyageMinnesota, KARE 11, WCCO-TV, and The Imprint for insights on youth empowerment, housing, and community resilience.

Hanna’s leadership has earned widespread acclaim. She was named one of the Black Leaders You Should Know by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal and recognized as a Notable BIPOC Executive by Twin Cities Business Magazine in 2023. Her commitment to mentorship and advocacy was honored with the Excellence in Multicultural Mentoring Award at the African Mental Health Summit, and she received the Rest Up Award from the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota for her work advancing gender and racial equity.

Hanna is a committed leader of social change globally. Her visionary leadership includes strategic direction setting, business acumen, creativity, innovation, and acute interest in learning and curiosity for transforming communities. Her voice and vision have been featured across

major media platforms, including KARE 11, WCCO-TV, Finance & Commerce, and the Pioneer Press, where she has spoken on critical issues such as deeply affordable housing, youth empowerment, and community resilience. She has also contributed to national conversations as a panelist for the National Women’s Shelter Network, sharing insights on engaging and empowering young adults in transitional housing programs.

Hanna’s leadership is not only recognized—it is deeply rooted in action. Her work continues to inspire and mobilize others toward a more just, inclusive, and hopeful future.

Laverne McCartney Knighton

Laverne McCartney Knighton is Area Development Director for UNCF (United Negro College Fund Inc.), the nation’s largest and most effective minority education organization offering scholarships and opportunities to over a half million Black students in our country. She oversees fundraising, scholarship program development, and external relations to benefit UNCF’s 37 member private, historically black colleges and universities and area students in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and North and South Dakota.

She is a native Texan, “a child of the 60s and a child of segregation”, raised in the small rural town of Doucette, Texas. 1n 1968 of her eighth-grade year, she was one of the first Black students bussed from an all-black school to an all-white school across town to test desegregation. After integration was mandated in 1969 by Texas law and the school was fully integrated, Laverne went on to become the first African American valedictorian to graduate in 1973.

Laverne was recruited to Minnesota in 1978 upon graduation from University of Houston where she earned her BS degree in Consumer Science & Merchandising to start her career in retail fashion merchandising with Dayton Hudson Corporation. She returned to Houston, Texas in 1980 where she adapted her career

goals to work in the oil and gas industry for seven years with Panhandle Eastern Pipeline. As destiny would have it, she was recruited back to Minnesota in 1987 to continue in the field of fashion where she was a buyer for ten years with Dayton’s/Marshall Fields.

In pursuit of her passion to serve community and to make a difference, Laverne spent seven years as Public Information and Education Manager for Tubman Family Alliance, a domestic violence organization where she built community partnerships and created public awareness about the issue.

Laverne is also an experienced corporate leader having spent 13 years at Target Corporation in Community Relations/Corporate Social Responsibility where she helped advance Target’s reputation as a leader in education, arts, and diversity. She early retired in 2013 but returned to the nonprofit sector in 2014 as Program Director for The BrandLab where she led and managed an initiative to provide diverse high school students exposure, access, and opportunity to careers in marketing and advertising.

Laverne believes that service equals an authentic and deep connection to community. Whether as a volunteer, mentor, or board member, she serves with diligence, commitment, and enthusiasm. She is an expert connector and collaborator, a passionate ally and advocate for community building and engagement.

Laverne made a bold move in June 2020 and stepped into the arena of politics. In answering the call for change in response to the murder of George Floyd, Laverne was one of forty African American women recruited by Black Women Rising who stepped up to say “no more!” Laverne ran for Minnesota State Senator District 65 against a 30-year incumbent. With just eight weeks leading up to an August 11th Primary, Laverne ran a fast and furious campaign in hopes of winning a majority to be a new voice and new choice on the November General Election ballot. Although she did not win the Primary, she garnered over 36% of the votes as a first-time candidate and put the powers that be on notice that the status quo was no longer acceptable. Her platform addressed the need for changes in systemic racism, public safety reform and bringing much needed and long overdue diversity to the State Senate. Laverne was featured on MSNBC Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, Elle Magazine, BBC News, Pioneer Press, MPR News with Angela Davis, Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, Insight News.

Laverne serves as an External Advisor to Governor Tim Walz’s Community Resiliency and Recovery work group to address racial inequalities, and disparities due to COVID-19 and to look at policymaking and other opportunities to help communities of color. She was appointed in 2017 to Governor Mark Dayton’s Young Women’s Initiative Council working to improve equity for young women living with the greatest disparities in Minnesota.

In 2019 Laverne was recognized as a Woman of Excellence at the Celebrating The Sistas Award Ceremony in recognition of her outstanding leadership, contributions and commitment to the Twin Cities community. In 2021, she was honored as a Path Finder and featured in the Minnesota African American Heritage Calendar. She has been recognized by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal as one of 200 Black Leaders in the Twin Cities region and as a 2021 Notable BIPOC Executive.

Laverne is actively involved in local chapters of professional national service organizations: Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, The Links, Incorporated and The Girl Friends, Incorporated. She currently serves on the boards of Face to Face and Black Women Rising.

She is an Alumni of Leadership Saint Paul and has served as Advisory Board Member for Cedar Riverside People’s Center, YWCA of St. Paul and Chicago Children’s Advocacy Center. She is a former Board Member of Summit University Planning Council, APEX Charter School and various arts organizations. She

has also served as an active member of Chicago African Americans in Philanthropy, Minnesota Blacks in Philanthropy and Donors Forum and is currently a member of Minnesota Council of Nonprofits. She has served as Graduation Coach for Achieve Minneapolis, Reading Tutor for Reading Corps and mentor for Girls Taking Action and Project Diva. An avid reader since childhood, she has been a member of Our Book Club for the past 35 years.

Laverne resides in St. Paul with her husband of 28 years, Russell Knighton. They have three children -Jason, Kymba, Jaraux and six grandchildren. Laverne and Russell are proud members of Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church in Minneapolis.