Janis Clay

Janis Clay is an experienced attorney with a keen interest in public policy and corporate governance and many years of business and nonprofit board service. She became executive director of the Civic Caucus in 2017, and became chair in 2020. In addition to the Civic Caucus, her board service has included the Lake Superior Railroad Museum, North Shore Scenic Railroad, Red River Valley & Western Railroad, Twin Cities & Western Railroad, Minnesota Prairie Line, the Western Railroad Equipment Company, Way to Grow, Magnum Chorum, Minnesota Zoo Foundation, Epilepsy Foundation of Minnesota, Lowry Hill Neighborhood Association, and the Woodbury Chorus and Orchestra. She graduated from St. Olaf College with a bachelor’s degree in economics, and from the University of Minnesota Law School, where she was a managing editor of the Minnesota Law Review. In private law practice, she has received the Martindale-Hubbell peer review rating of AV Preeminent for ethical standards and legal ability every year since 2001.

Feven Tesfaye

Feven Tesfaye, a senior at Burnsville High School, serves as a youth representative on the Minnesota Youth Council, amplifying youth voices in state legislative and agency decisions. She also serves on the Board of Directors on the National Youth Leadership Council. In addition, Feven is an Environmental Activist Network leader, a Humanity Rising Student Changemaker Podcast host, and an intern at the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office.

T. Williams

Theartrice ("T") Williams, MSW, is an independent consultant; former executive director of Phyllis Wheatley Community Center and, more recently, its interim executive director; former Minneapolis School Board member; former senior research associate at Rainbow Research, Inc.; and former Minnesota Ombudsman for Corrections. Williams has taught courses at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Affairs and at Augsburg College.

Williams specializes in questions of social and distributive justice, with particular emphasis on community economic development and education issues affecting minority populations. He has been the principal investigator on Rainbow Research evaluations of several local community-based organizations and has conducted program and organizational assessments at the national level. For six years, Williams was evaluation consultant and technical assistance provider to 10 local community-based organizations funded by the Minnesota Health Department's Eliminating Health Disparities Initiative.

Williams' recognitions and awards include The Bush Foundation Leadership Fellows award; Outstanding Achievement Award, Minnesota Chapter National Association of Social Workers; Outstanding Service in Criminal Justice Award, National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice Award; Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota Service Award; Outstanding Alumni Award, University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work.

Williams holds a B.A. degree from the University of Illinois and an M.S.W. degree from the University of Pennsylvania and has done graduate work at the University of Illinois, University of Chicago, DePaul University Law School and Northwestern University.

John Cairns

John Cairns is an attorney with John Cairns Law, P.A., in Minneapolis. He founded the firm, which focuses on charter schools, in 2008. Prior to 2008, he was a shareholder at Briggs and Morgan, P.A. During his 19 years with the firm, Cairns was a member of the Business Law Section and the Education/Tax-Exempt Organization Practice Group.

In 1969, at age 27, Cairns was elected to the Minneapolis City Council and, in 1971, at age 30, he became its youngest-ever president. He was executive director of the Minnesota Business Partnership from 1979 to 1984. He was a founding member of Public School Incentives, a nonprofit organization that helped raise over $25 million for school reform and restructuring in Minnesota. He served as a consultant for The Business Roundtable in its work to achieve public school reform on a national scale.

After Minnesota passed the nation's first charter school law in 1991, Cairns helped establish the nation's first charter schools and secured 501(c)(3) status for the schools. He is widely recognized as one of the most experienced charter school attorneys in the country. He has been published in Harvard Business Review and Education Week and has spoken at various conferences on the topics of education and school reform.

Born in Wilmington, Delaware, Cairns received a bachelor's degree from Carleton College and a law degree from Duke University School of Law.

Helen Baer

Helen Baer is a communications and digital content professional with a background in public policy and government, social innovation, sports merchandising, education and foreign language and literacy. She joined the Civic Caucus in 2020 as communications and digital content manager. A linguist by trade, she is comfortable speaking German, French, and Spanish, and has studied Swahili and Yiddish. She maintains a private practice in foreign language tutoring and personal digital consulting.

Baer has previously worked as legislative intern in the U.S. House of Representatives, merchandising manager in women's professional soccer for FC Kansas City, intern in museum experience with the Minnesota Children's Museum, and German camp counselor at the Concordia Language Villages. Baer graduated from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, with a bachelor’s in linguistics, and a minor in social entrepreneurship. She is currently an instructional designer at the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul.

Ipshita Tiwari

Ipshita Tiwari is a junior at Eden Prairie High School, who is passionate about public speaking and public policy. She brings her skills in communication and leadership to a variety of school clubs and organizations, including the speech team and as competition leader of the DECA chapter, secretary for the UNICEF chapter, and director of the Film Club. Ipshita is also a member of Eden Prairie's Students on Commissions program, where she serves on the sustainability commission alongside city leaders to plan and execute local sustainability efforts, including annual clothing swaps and community gardens. 

Ipshita is particularly interested in youth empowerment, mental health and civic education. She hopes to bring these passions and interests to the table to contribute meaningfully to the Civic Caucus's mission and foster positive change in Minnesota.