Staff

Destiny Owens is a distinguished executive leader, educator, organizational strategist, and community advocate with more than a decade of experience advancing organizational excellence, cultivating strategic partnerships, and developing initiatives that strengthen communities and institutions.

With expertise spanning nonprofit leadership, human resources, education, strategic planning, program development, and community engagement, Destiny has led organizations through growth, transformation, and strategic development. Destiny is the Founder of True Essentials

Consulting, a DEIB consulting agency where she has advised and developed initiatives across the nonprofit, government, education, public health, and private sectors. Destiny serves on the YMCA board of directors and the Blueprint for Safety Committee.

Previously, Destiny served as the Director of Racial Justice at YWCA Mankato and as the Board President of Kato Public Charter School (2018-2023). She also founded The Juneteenth Foundation, advancing cultural engagement and community collaboration.

Destiny holds a B.A. in Education and an A.A.S. in Child Development and is pursuing an M.S. in Human Resource Management.

Samantha Maranell is committed to making a difference. As the Education Director, she brings GMDC's longstanding Promoting Respect Workshops to the local schools so that students learn and experience the value in diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

Samantha has spent most of her life in southern Minnesota, growing up in Waseca and earning a Bachelors' degree in English at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter. She lived in Samoa for two years as a primary school teacher with the Peace Corps, wrote for the Waseca County News as a local reporter, and has spent the last decade focusing her work in local non-profits: Mankato's Committee Against Domestic Abuse (CADA), where she was a shelter advocate, and Planned Parenthood, where she worked both in the clinic and as a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Specialist. Samantha is also certified as an Intercultural Development Inventory® (IDI®) Qualified Administrator. 

Yusra Omar is the Development and Communications Coordinator at the Greater Diversity Council of Mankato, bringing a strong passion for diversity and inclusion and a deep commitment to furthering the organization's mission. As the office's first point of contact, she leads social media, newsletter content, and communications, while also heading up fundraising and events.

A Mankato native, Yusra is deeply involved in community advocacy work and is pursuing a Master's in Public Policy at UMass Amherst, expected in 2027.