OUR INCLUSIVE TEAM

Marnita Schroedl
CEO & Founder
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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 and a 2014 Roy Wilkins Fellow, Marnita 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.

Lauren Williams
As the Training & Project Director at Marnita’s Table Lauren Williams manages training and client-based projects involving training components, ensuring that IZI is accessible to all, no matter age, access or ability. Beginning in the role of Communications Coordinator in 2016, Lauren changed roles in 2017 to focus on enhancing the Intentional Social Interaction training experience.
Lauren graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in Communications Studies and a minor in Leadership. As a South Minneapolis native, with family roots in the St. Paul Rondo community, Lauren has been engaged with community service organizations since childhood – developing her leadership on the shoulders of strong community leaders.
Marnita’s Table is committed to hiring personnel that reflect the diverse communities we serve. The majority of our 11 staff members are people of color, including all members of the senior leadership team. Over half of our team, including all members of the senior leadership team, are women or gender non-binary and about half of our staff also identify as LGBTQ+. Additionally, most of our team members are proud Minnesota locals, born and/or raised in the state.

Elijah Fortson
Lead Facilitator
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Joe Wells
Facilities Manager
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Jules Burke
Web design and Admin Assistant
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Portraits by Armour Photography