Staff Member Biographies

Ellis F. Bullock is the third Executive Director of the Grotto Foundation. Previously, he served as Executive Director of the Jostens Foundation and Vice President for Public Affairs. He has also served as Executive Director of Youth Trust of Minneapolis and Vice President of Development for Scholarship America. Among the many volunteer boards on which he has served are: Minnesota Council on Foundations, Independent Sector (where he also served as Chair for its Tenth Anniversary Conference), the inaugural board for BoardSource (National Center for Non-Profit Boards), and United Way of Greater Minneapolis from which he received its highest award for Community Volunteerism.

LaVon Lee, as Program Officer for the Grotto Foundation, supports general grantmaking and oversees a number of initiatives focused on work in the American Indian community—the American Indian Family Empowerment Program, the Native Language Revitalization Initiative, and the Leadership Development Project. Prior to joining the Grotto Foundation staff in 2006, LaVon served for ten years as Executive Director of a grassroots organization that worked directly with the American Indian community. Her experience has been primarily in the areas of non-profit management, philanthropy, community leadership development, and community advocacy. She serves on numerous committees and boards in the Twin Cities American Indian community, as well as nationally on the Critically Endangered Native Languages Revitalization Campaign.