Kemmis takes helm at Northwest Area Foundation

By ROB CHANEY of the Missoulian

Former Missoula Mayor Dan Kemmis has taken the chairmanship of the Northwest Area Foundation board of directors as it begins a new approach to its regional poverty-reduction efforts.

A senior fellow at the University of Montana’s O’Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West, Kemmis has also been on the foundation’s board since 2000. The foundation serves Montana, Minnesota, Iowa, North and South Dakota, Idaho, Oregon and Washington – all states where the Great Northern Railroad operated.

Railroad founder James J. Hill’s son, Louis Hill, started the foundation in 1934.

For the past decade, the foundation has been helping other institutions strengthen their abilities to help low-income communities. In Montana, that has included leadership training programs in many rural communities such as the Flathead Reservation. Kemmis said one of his tasks will be to develop better ways of working with existing, like-minded institutions.

“In the future, we’re likely to see more involvement with organizations across the region that are already working in this field,” Kemmis said. “There are a substantial number of nonprofit entities with substantial experience in the field, and we’ll be asking some of them for advice.”

The Northwest Area Foundation has an endowment of more than $500 million and an annual operating budget of about $25 million. As board chairman, Kemmis will also be leading the search for a new executive director. Longtime president and CEO Karl Stauber recently resigned.

Kemmis assumed the leadership post July 13. Franklin National Bank CEO and University of Montana graduate Dorothy Bridges was named vice chairwoman.