The Team

Every aspect of our organization is intentionally inclusive, regularly inviting a wide variety of participants to become a part of our community-building work. We provide leadership opportunities on a “bring-it” basis, meaning those identified as leaders or for leadership at Marnita’s Table are those who stand up to lead and organize.

STAFF

Marnita Schroedl, Co-Founder & Social Capitalist
Marnita created the successful model of Intentional Social Interaction.  A new human-centered approach to decreasing disparities, Intentional Social Interaction catalyzes enduring personal friendships across race, class and culture.

A 2009 Shannon Leadership Fellow,  Marnita is an expert on women’s reproductive health issues and HIV/AIDS.    Always drawn to servant leadership, at age 24 she joined and served for over nine years on the board of the Los Angeles Women’s Clinic.  She is now leading a collaborative partnership between the Minnesota Department of Health, the Citizens League and the wider community designed to rapidly reduce the epidemic of STD/STIs among young women in Minnesota, especially in communities of color.

She is a social entrepreneur who has invented a replicable way to catalyze strong  relationships between disparate organizations and individuals in order to deliver a stronger, more engaged communities for the benefit of all.  She is a frequently sought-after interactive presenter on the topic of Bridging Social Capital.  A senior communications industry veteran with more than 20 years experience facilitating, training and team building for corporate groups and senior executives, Marnita employs an innovative and goals-oriented approach to achieving clients’ professional and personal objectives. A skilled and energetic facilitator, she excels at demonstrating the positive rewards garnered from proactively identifying and maximizing social capital. Marnita’s professional and community volunteer activities focus on energizing groups and individuals to make proactive transformational change through intention, communication and action.

Marnita is herself a prime exemplar of strength through multiculturalism. She is a biracial woman born of a Black man from the Dominican Republic and a Jewish Danish-American mother, raised by Irish-German immigrant adoptive parents, with American Indian, Korean, and Vietnamese foster siblings. She is now the essential anchor for a family including her husband Carl, his two Jewish-Norwegian children, and her own son, whose father is Black.

Carl Goldstein, Co-Founder & Executive Director
Carl is a former journalist who worked in Asia for more than 15 years, including a decade with the authoritative Far Eastern Economic Review. In his time in Asia, spent mostly in China, Hong Kong, or Taiwan, Carl learned to speak fluent Mandarin Chinese and, just as important, experienced life as a minority. Carl oversees the operations of Marnita’s Table, including legal affairs and finance, and is also responsible for issue identification and research.

Carl previously served as senior editor for business and economics at Minnesota Public Radio. He has a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and Asian Studies from Cornell University. He is a former board member of the Minnesota International Center, the World Affairs Council for the Upper Midwest.

BOARD MEMBERS & OFFICERS

David Scott, Chair
Vice President
Franklin National Bank

Chuck Duddingston
Senior Investment Management Consultant
Morgan Stanley Wealth Management