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Office of Government and Community Relations | EMail
3 Morrill Hall
100 Church Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455-0110
612/626-9234
612/624-6369 (Fax)

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Meet Our Staff

Donna Peterson

Associate Vice President, Government and Community Relations
612/624-9022 | EMail peterson@umn.edu

Donna Peterson has served the University of Minnesota since 1990, first as Director of State Relations and currently as Associate Vice President.

Donna's work entails representing the University at the legislature and with other state officials. As Associate Vice President, she is responsible for communicating University issues to members of the state legislature and state government; likewise she is relied upon to inform University officials of legislative issues and process. Donna also oversees the activities of the Directors of Federal Relations and Community Relations. Before coming to the University of Minnesota, Donna served as a member of the Minnesota Senate from 1983 through 1990, representing district 61 in Minneapolis. Prior to that, she served as a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives for three years.

Donna is a graduate of the University of Minnesota.

Cynthia Scott

Associate Director, Government and Community Relations
612/624-4559 | EMail scott005@umn.edu

Cynthia Scott serves as Associate Director for Government and Community Relations. She oversees the logistics of the department and manages our unit. Cynthia also works with campus communications, both internally and externally.

Prior to joining our team, Cynthia served in advising for the College of Liberal Arts.

Cynthia is an undergraduate of the University of Florida and holds a masters in Linguistics from the University of Minnesota.

Bill Otto

Associate, State and Federal Relations
612/625-5512 | EMail billotto@umn.edu

Bill serves as the Assocaite to bothe State and Federal Relations. He handles communications, production and data management within Government Relations.

Prior to coming to the University, Bill worked in the Minnesota Senate.

Bill studied Political Science and American Studies at Minnesota State University Moorhead and Political Science at the University of Minnesota.

Marty McDonough

Assistant Director, State Relations
612/626-7372 | EMail mcdon034@umn.edu

Marty McDonough is the Assistant Director of State Relations at the University of Minnesota.

His responsibilities at the State Capitol include all legislation that deals with higher education funding and specifically, policy that would affect any of the health professional schools; medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, public health and nursing.

Marty is also the lead legislative representative on behalf of the University for the U of M/Mayo partnership on Medical Biotechnology and Genomics.

Prior to working for the U of M, Marty served on the Government Relations team under former Governor Arne. H. Carlson.

Marty is a graduate of Saint Cloud State University.

Todd Iverson

Assistant Director, State Relations
612/625-1445 | EMail ivers257@umn.edu

Todd's areas of responsibility at the Capitol for the University include agriculture, energy, and transportation in addition to University funding and capital projects. Todd joined the University government relations team in the winter of 2005.

Prior to his work at the University, Todd has held numerous positions in the political arena. Including work for Mayor Andrew Young in Atlanta, various staff positions in the Minnesota Senate and House, lobbyist for the Minnesota Trucking Association, and Director of Government Relations for Ewald Consulting.

Todd, his wife Ellen and their two children, Ian and Emma, live in Northfield.

Mr. Iverson is a 1989 graduate of the University of Minnesota.

Channing W. Riggs

Director, Federal Relations
612/624-8520 | EMail riggs035@umn.edu

Channing Riggs serves as the Director of Federal Government Relations at the University of Minnesota. She joined the University in May of 2004.

Before coming to the University, Ms. Riggs was responsible for state and federal government relations for The Pillsbury Company in Minneapolis and prior to that, she worked in public and government affairs for Nestlé in Washington, DC and Switzerland.

Ms. Riggs is a graduate of Penn State University with degrees in Political Science and Economics.

Daniel Gilchrist

Coordinator, Federal Relations
612/624-3304 | EMail dang@umn.edu

Dana Bacon

Grassroots Manager, Government and Community Relations
612/624-4596 | EMail dbacon@umn.edu

Dana serves as the Grassroots Manager at the U. He joined the University in February 2008, where he manages the University’s grassroots advocacy network and coordinates volunteer recruitment, training and outreach.

Prior to joining the U, Dana was the healthcare policy analyst for the American Academy of Neurology; prior to that, he was a researcher at the Minnesota Senate.

Dana holds a B.A. in Scandinavian literature from the University of Minnesota and an M.A. in public administration from Hamline University.

Wokie C. Freeman

Outreach Manager, Government and Community Relations
612/626-1785 | EMail wokie@umn.edu