Mary-Margaret Zindren

For more than 20 years, Mary-Margaret Zindren, CAE, has worked to further equity, diversity, and inclusion in city government, the law, the profession of architecture, and the built environment. She is a frequent speaker and panelist on organizational leadership, gender equity, and racial justice.

Since 2015, Mary-Margaret has held the position of EVP/executive director of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) – Minnesota, which includes the three local chapters of AIA in Minnesota (Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Northern Minnesota) and the Minnesota Architectural Foundation. From 2015 to 2020, she was the publisher of the award-winning Architecture MN magazine, which in Spring 2021 will transition to become ENTER — a digital weekly (www.entermn.com) and annual print publication focused on the cities and neighborhoods of Minnesota, community leaders and designers who are creating a better built environment, and the ideas shaping the future of the places where we live, work and play.

Prior to 2015, she served as the executive director of the Hennepin County Bar Association and Hennepin County Bar Foundation, as director of Communications and Strategic Initiatives at the League of Minnesota Cities, and as Legislative Counsel at the National League of Cities in Washington, D.C.

Mary-Margaret holds the American Society of Association Executives’ designation of Certified Association Executive, serves on the AIA National Equity and the Future of Architecture Committee, is vice president of the Council of Architectural Component Executives (CACE), and received the CACE Emerging Leader award in 2018. She also served on the Anti-Racism Leadership Team of Unity Unitarian Universalist Church in St. Paul, 2012–2015.

She received her BA in public administration from Miami University and her MPA in public and nonprofit leadership from the University of Minnesota.

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