Head of Communications

Chanida Phaengdara Potter is a mother, community storyteller, and creative change strategist. She leads as head of communications for Women Donors Network (WDN) + WDN Action. She was previously the vice president of strategic communications & narrative change at Women’s Foundation of Minnesota. Prior to that, she was the founder & executive director of The SEAD Project (Southeast Asian Diaspora) for 10 years. Before joining philanthropy, she worked more than 15 years in nonprofits in cultural organizing, resource mobilization, community development, program design, and strategic communications – locally, nationally, and internationally. She has a Bachelor’s in Global Studies and Communications from the University of Minnesota and a Master’s of Public Affairs from Hamline University. She’s also author of the first Southeast Asian anthology called Planting SEADS: Minnesota Diaspora Stories. She co-led multiracial coalitions and initiatives on data disaggregation, ethnic studies, anti-deportation, police abolition, refugee+immigrant rights, and gender justice. She has served on boards and advisories for Twin Cities Media Alliance, Legacies of War, and Jay & Rose Phillips Family Foundation. Her work has been featured on Twin Cities Daily Planet, Asian American Press, The Uptake, Minnesota Public Radio, MinnPost, Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, Radio Free Asia, Voice of America, Vox, NPR, and NBC, among others. She currently lives with her partner and two children in Portland, Oregon in the federally unrecognized territory of the Chinook Indian Nation and considers her origin roots in the Dakota and Anishinaabe territory of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Vientiane, Laos forever homes.