Mary Quirk

Mary Quirk is the Volunteer Resources Leadership Project Manager for the Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration, MAVA (www.mavanetwork.org).  She oversees an initiative to build capacity for volunteerism in Minnesota, and special projects on engaging Baby Boomers as volunteers and volunteerism in immigrant and refugee communities.  She coordinated the development of the Volunteer Impact Leadership Training Series, an eight-module training on best practices based on curriculum developed by Betty Stallings. This series has trained over 1,000 leaders of volunteers through workshops offered in all regions of Minnesota.   

Quirk has directed two volunteer-based nonprofit organizations, Little Brothers – Friends of the Elderly and Southeast Seniors, A Living at Home Block Nurse Program. She developed an interest in the value of volunteer resources during the current economic downturn following a discussion at a MAVA Strategic Directions Committee meeting about how shortsighted it is for an agency to lay off a volunteer manager and lose volunteer resources during a funding shortfall. This lead to the drafting of a position paper on Capitalizing on Volunteer Resources During Tight Economic Times (http://www.energizeinc.com/art/subj/MAVAart.htm), and talking with a number of MAVA members to learn what changes they experienced with the economic downturn and strategies they developed to respond.

Quirk has a BA degree from Grinnell College.  She holds masters’ degrees from the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs and the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota, and has a Certificate in the Leadership of Volunteers from MAVA. She has published articles in e-Volunteerism, Nonprofit World and the Fieldstone Alliance Tools You Can Use.