When crisis came to Minneapolis, nonprofit leadership did not look abstract. It looked like neighbors getting trained, rapid-response systems, and ordinary people deciding they would not stand by while their communities were terrorized.
In this episode, Glennda Testone and I talk with Emilia Gonzalez Avalos, executive director of UNIDOS Minnesota, about what happened on the ground during Operation Metro Surge – and what nonprofit leaders everywhere can learn from it.
Emilia traces her own path from undocumented student organizer to movement leader, shaped by family stories, immigrant struggle, and a deep belief that leadership is part of a longer story that begins before us and continues after us. That perspective grounds a conversation that is as much about courage and belonging as it is about tactics.
At the center of this episode is a critical truth: communities do not hold in crisis by accident. They hold because people and organizations have spent years building the infrastructure, skills, and trust that make collective action possible.
Emilia explains how UNIDOS Minnesota developed rapid-response systems over time, trained thousands of people observers and upstanders, and created a pathway for ordinary residents to step into leadership.
She is clear that this work is not romantic. It requires tools, political education, discipline, and the willingness to face fear without surrendering to it.
The conversation also widens beyond Minneapolis. What happened there is not just a local story.
It is a lesson in how nonprofits, coalitions, and communities can respond when democratic norms erode, when fear is weaponized, and when neighbors are asked to choose whether they will look away or step forward.
This is a conversation about leadership under pressure – but also about what becomes possible when people refuse isolation, build belonging, and take responsibility for each other.
TUNE IN TO LEARN:
- What leaders everywhere can learn from Minneapolis: Even if your community is not facing the same conditions, this episode offers urgent lessons about preparation, narrative, coalition building, and moral courage.
- What it means to lead without getting in the way: Leaders do not always need to direct people – sometimes they need to equip them and let them move.
KEY QUOTES:
- “Everybody has a calling, and everybody has recourse. Historical, contextual, societal, spiritual recourse that they can access through moments of crisis. And sometimes our job is to not get in the way. Give them the tools, and let them run unleashed.” – Emilia Gonzalez Avalos
- “So I really like the definition from Brené Brown, that a leader is the person that assumes or takes on the responsibility to invest in the potential of other people or institutions or systems.” – Emilia Gonzalez Avalos
- “Minnesotans are leaders that took on the responsibility to invest in the democracy potential of our country, of Americans. And it has nothing to do with a title. It has to do with assuming that responsibility and holding tight to it.” – Emilia Gonzalez Avalos
ABOUT GUEST:
Emilia Gonzalez Avalos leads Unidos MN with a deep commitment to building multiracial, multigenerational community power. She is intent on closing economic, health, and leadership gaps by investing in the leadership of those most impacted, so they can shape the solutions that affect their lives.
Emilia believes in the collective capacity of Minnesota’s Black, Brown, Indigenous, immigrant, White, and working-class communities to drive systemic change. Throughout her career, she has focused on transforming lived experience into leadership and civic power, organizing alongside low-wage workers, undocumented people, young people, and families.
As Executive Director, she has helped grow Unidos MN from a small local program into a statewide movement organization, opening space for new leaders to rise and communities to win policy changes that expand dignity and opportunity for all. Emilia is now focused on strengthening the organization’s long-term strategy and building new models to advance equity, inclusion, and justice across Minnesota.
Glennda Testone is a nonprofit leadership expert who spent 14 years as the Executive Director of New York City’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center. Over the course of her tenure at The Center, she tripled the organization’s budget, strengthened its programs, and completed a $9M capital building renovation to transform the LGBTQ community’s home on West 13 Street. Additionally, she partnered with Google to launch the virtual reality experience of Stonewall Forever, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Stonewall, and helped lead a racial equity transformation of the organization.
Testone previously served as Vice President at The Women’s Media Center and Senior Director of Media Programs for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).
RESOURCES:
- Emilia Gonzalez Avalos LinkedIn
- UNIDOS-MN
- UNIDOS-MN Facebook
- UNIDOS-MN LinkedIn
- Glennda Testone LinkedIn
- Nonprofit Leadership Lab
- Joan Garry’s Guide to Nonprofit Leadership – 2nd Edition by Joan Garry
- FREE WORKSHOP: Let’s Build the Nonprofit Board of Your Dreams!
- FREE WORKSHOP: The 5 Practices of Outstanding Nonprofit Leaders
- Music by Jukebox the Ghost
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