The Minneapolis Urban League Board of Directors has announced that interim President and CEO Steven Belton has been selected as the permanent CEO of the nearly 90-year-old organization. Belton won the top job after a six-month national search that attracted many highly qualified candidates from across the country.
Belton has a wealth of professional and community organizing experience, including serving as chief of staff, executive director of employee relations, and director of diversity and equal opportunity for the Minneapolis Public Schools. He was a partner and litigator at the law firm now known as Stinson, Leonard Street.
Belton has also served as president and CEO of the Urban Coalition of Minneapolis and executive director of the State Council on Black Minnesotans. He is currently youth minister at Park Avenue United Methodist Church, where he will continue his ministerial duties.
A Minneapolis native, Belton graduated from Minneapolis Central High School. He received his undergraduate degree from Washington University in St. Louis and his law degree from the top-ranked University of Michigan Law School.
Clinton Collins, Jr., chair of the MUL Board of Directors, said, “We are extremely pleased that Steven Belton will be our permanent CEO. In the past eight months, he has demonstrated extraordinary leadership during a time of great challenges to our organization.
“Mr. Belton has tremendous support from all of our stakeholders, and is highly respected throughout the Twin Cities business and nonprofit community. He has a clear vision for rejuvenating the MUL and restoring it to its historic role of leading the charge for better economic and social outcomes for people of African descent.”
The Minneapolis Urban League is a community-based organization that has been a National Urban League affiliate since 1926. Our mission is linking African descendants and other people of color to economic opportunities while effectively advocating for policies that eradicate racial disparities.
— Information provided by the Minneapolis Urban League. For more information about the MUL and its programs and services, visit www.mul.org, or call 612-302-3100.
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