Brenda Falk, M.H.R.

Brenda Falk joined the Johnson Center in March 2025 as a research manager. Her background includes university, foundation, and nonprofit work, and she strives to serve the field through research, writing, and thought leadership. Her current work includes research and writing on nonprofit alternatives to closure, elevating the successes and lessons of a place-based family philanthropy through mixed-methods data collection and analysis, and qualitative research on the motivations and characteristics of family and business philanthropies in Colombia. She has worked in both rural and urban places on topics spanning human rights, economic opportunity, affordable housing, senior services, community organizing, and public policy.

Prior to this role, Brenda worked as an independent consultant partnering with Davidoff Mission-Driven Business Strategies and ThinkPlace to provide expertise in strategic planning, community engagement, qualitative research design, and data collection and analysis. She held a policy associate position at Steans Family Foundation, managing a portion of their policy advocacy grantmaking portfolio and providing research support for their economic opportunity and housing work. During graduate school, Brenda was a social impact intern at Lever for Change and, through her studies, conducted research on protection networks for human rights defenders, school shootings, and immigration policy. She also held multiple positions at Humboldt Area Foundation, including board and executive liaison, community organizer, and special projects manager.

Brenda holds a Bachelor of Arts, double majoring in interdisciplinary studies: Latin American studies and Spanish from Cal Poly Humboldt, and a Master of Human Rights from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.