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President, Citizens League
In 2003, Sean Kershaw became just the sixth Citizens League president in its 50-plus-year-history. Sean had been a member of the Citizens League Board of Directors since 1996, and co-chaired the Citizens League's 50th Anniversary report, Doing the Common Good Better.
Sean joined the Citizens League after leaving his position as Deputy Director for the City of Saint Paul's Department of Planning and Economic Development (PED), where he had worked for 11 years. During his tenure, Sean chaired then-Mayor Norm Coleman's e-Government initiative and coordinated Coleman's information technology, charter school and education initiatives. Sean also worked as community outreach coordinator on the Mayor's Y2K initiative (where he learned many now-important aspects of community emergency preparedness!). Before coming to Minnesota, Sean was planning coordinator for the Public Housing Authority in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska.
Sean describes his life work as building the institutions necessary to "make policy public." Sean is passionate about active citizenship, civic organization and good public policy. He is a founding member of the Active Citizens School for Young Adults, a young-adult civic leadership program, and is currently working on non-profit civic leadership efforts through the Minnesota Active Citizenship Initiative. He's not afraid to admit that he's been a policy wonk his whole life; he drew political cartoons even as a third grader.
Sean has a BA in Sociology from Haverford College. He lives in Saint Paul's West Seventh neighborhood with his partner Tim Hawkins and their son, Aidan, and daughter, Grace.
