MINNEAPOLIS, MN—February 17, 2026—The African American Leadership Forum (The Forum) is announcing the appointment of Dara Beevas as its next Chief Executive Officer, bringing to the role more than two decades of experience helping leaders and organizations clarify their purpose and build the structures to realize it.
The appointment signals both continuity and momentum for an organization that has spent 20 years shaping what’s possible for Black life in Minnesota—through disciplined coalition-building, community-rooted strategy, and an unrelenting belief that the present is not the final word.
“Dara’s leadership meets the scale of what this moment is asking,” said Kevin Lindsey, Board Chair of The Forum. “She leads with both a strong sense of purpose and heart. The Forum has been strengthened by catalytic leadership, and Dara is prepared to build from that foundation—turning vision into execution and keeping our work accountable to the community.”
Beevas arrives as one of the state’s most recognized voices at the intersection of culture, strategy, and community power. As a publisher and cultural builder, she has spent her career helping leaders name what they stand for—then do the hard work of living it out. She steps into this role with clear eyes about both the weight of The Forum’s legacy and the urgency of the current moment.
That urgency is real. Minnesota communities are navigating heightened immigration enforcement, public unrest, and the accumulated weight of grief and exhaustion. In moments like this, The Forum’s role is not to perform certainty—it is to be steady, principled, and useful to the people it serves.
Under Beevas’s leadership, The Forum will continue advancing the results that matter most: community protection, civic power-building, and policy strategies shaped by community wisdom. It will remain what it has long been—a Black-led think-and-do tank committed to bringing a more liberated future into being through cross-community collaboration.
“We lead from the truth of our people—and we build from there,” said Beevas. “I’m stepping into this role with humility and with deep respect for the leaders who have carried The Forum forward. Our job right now is to keep building: not just ideas, but structures—pathways to safety, to power, to well-being. The future we talk about has to show up in real life.”
For interviews or media inquiries contact jasmine@aalftc.org