Mary Frances Wheeler is passionate about people and justice. Her greatest talent is seeing the threads between divergent ideas, perspectives and thinking. She describes herself as a “truth teller.” Her favorite word? Courage. 

Mary Frances is a systems change leader and consultant dedicated to addressing bias in health, education, and economic outcomes of non-dominant groups, with a focus on BIPOC. She provides culture assessment, learning opportunities, guidance and coaching to individuals, teams and organizations intending to advance their cultural competency and understanding of individual and systemic bias. She assists groups to reimage their philosophy, strategies, and practices to communicate with, respond to and embody the cultural norms, practices, language, and values of BIPOC groups. 

In her early career, Mary Frances worked with entities such as Girls Scouts, The Saint Paul Public Schools and City of Saint Paul Mayor where she was an advisor on diversity and culture, education, health, and youth and staffed the Sister Cities program. In these roles she coached dominate cultured individuals on outreach, communication, and engagement strategies with Hmong, African American, Laotian, Vietnamese native Spanish speakers, people living with disabilities, people living in poverty and/or experiencing homelessness and families and their children.

Mary Frances is the mother of two amazing sons, has two dogs, plays the flute, and enjoys rock climbing, downhill and water skiing, and swimming. She loves to listen to and dance to live music, especially while watching crowds of people enjoy live music together. Another favorite pastime is listening to her parents share stories from their childhood.

Mary Frances attended high school in Iowa City, Iowa, where she graduated from the University of Iowa with a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies, African American and Indigenous Populations. She has her Masters of Arts in organizational development. She is also a certified Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) administrator.