Jinath Tasnim (she/her) serves as the National Urban Fellow (NUF) for the Inclusive Economies Program at the Surdna Foundation.  

Jinath supports the Inclusive Economies team with day-to-day grantmaking activities, strategic advisement, research, and communications. During her fellowship, she aspires to explore the intersection of the philanthropic, nonprofit, and corporate spheres to learn deep empathy for movement-building across sectors, identities, and differences.  

Jinath is a 1.5-generation Bangali-American educator, community builder, social movement dreamer, and nonprofit Swiss army knife. Proudly raised in an immigrant hub of North Texas, Jinath has spent the past decade building lasting relationships and weaving resilient communities in the Twin Cities of Minnesota.  

Most recently, she served as the Community-Engaged Learning Coordinator with St. Catherine University, a historic women’s institution where she consulted faculty on best practices for community-engaged courses, connected students to Minnesota’s deep nonprofit network, and taught social change theory to all levels of the university. Prior, Jinath was a youth worker with Girl Scouts River Valleys, where she led culturally responsive leadership programming for 200+ girls of color in Minneapolis Public Schools. 

Jinath credits her skills and love of community-building to the Sisters of St. Joseph, a radical order of nuns who founded her service-year program for women, through which she served as a program assistant with The Advocates for Human Rights, a global impact but Minneapolis-based legal nonprofit. 

Jinath is pursuing a master’s in policy management from Georgetown University. A lover of places and spaces, she has a bachelor’s in geography from Macalester College. Outside of work, Jinath is busy daydreaming more just worlds, eating ice cream, advocating for her friends, cuddling cats, and cooking up a storm. 

Back to Team