Briana Nance Joyner '05

A Divine and Ordered Journey

“I feel like my time was divine and my steps were ordered at MA” 

For Briana, the story of her journey starts and ends with Minnehaha Academy. “I always go back to the story of Minnehaha and remember how many people along the way were so supportive and invested in me,” she says. “It’s always a part of my story, and it will be from here on out.”

Her journey began long before she set foot on campus, when Lance Johnson, the MA girls’ basketball coach, first saw her playing in the fourth grade. Briana was a fierce young girl who would go on to be a leader and a trailblazer, especially for Black women in Minnesota—a story she’s eager to share.

One day, while her dad was driving her to gymnastics, Briana made a decision that would change everything. “Dad, I need you to go get me some basketball shoes!” she declared. “I’m done with gymnastics; I really want to play basketball. I think it can give me great opportunities.”

Growing up, she and her dad spent countless hours watching Michael Jordan, studying not only the game but also the leadership skills on and off the court. She joined a park city team, and as fate would have it, Coach Lance Johnson was in the gym one day. He approached her parents, praising their daughter's hustle and speed. They thanked him and shared that while Briana loved basketball, they were concerned she wasn't being challenged enough academically at her current school.

When Lance heard this, a lightbulb went off. “Have you ever thought of Minnehaha?” he asked.

Her parents were hesitant, concerned about the cost of a private school. But Lance saw a bright future for Briana. “You have an extremely gifted and talented young lady who is great academically and could benefit from the support that MA could offer. And she plays sports!” he insisted.

They visited the campus, went through the application process, and Briana passed the entrance exam “with flying colors.” As they applied for scholarships and financial aid, Briana felt a wave of support. “I don’t think anyone around me was going to let me decline the ability to come to MA due to any financial barrier that may have been out there,” she reflects.

The final piece of the puzzle came from an unexpected source: her grandfather. He had a strained relationship with Briana and her father based on their identity as black people, but after her mom shared the opportunity at MA, he decided to help. “I think his way of apologizing and accepting me for who I am and how I identify was for him to say, ‘I will pick up the rest of what is needed to pay for her to go to this school,’” Briana recalls. And he did.

Briana started at MA in sixth grade, a moment she says “changed my whole life.” Her dad became the middle school girls’ basketball coach, and she began training with Coach Lance Johnson and Coach Josh Thurow, who nurtured a special group of student-athletes.

“For me, that is really where the story starts,” she says. “I was the type of student-athlete that would ask the coaches to open the gym for me at 6 and 7 a.m. I spent all my time at MA—and I mean all my time.”

 

“MA really does provide the ability to dream.”

Laying the Foundation for Leadership

She was noticed for her skills early on, practicing with the varsity team in seventh and eighth grade. This experience, along with the unwavering support from her teachers and coaches, created an environment where she could thrive. “These are the people who allowed and created the space and environment for me to dream big,” she explains.

That support, she now realizes, was more valuable than anything. “We see the divisiveness [in the world], now,” she says. “All of this mattered to how I was brought up. It shaped my lens on leadership, so now when I am leading an organization, I always go back to my MA story and how it has shaped who I am today. My MA journey is where I learned a lot of valuable competencies to support people.”

Briana went to St. Cloud State, where she played Division II basketball until her junior year, when a career-ending injury forced her to stop. She graduated with two degrees: one in International Business and one in Marketing, with a minor in French.

While she was still in college, she was recruited by a Target VP and ended up getting hired by Target Corporation nine months before graduation as an executive team leader. “They hired me, gave me the offer, and said your office will be waiting.” Briana had a lot of success with Target and loved developing people.

After a few years with Target, her dad encouraged her to consider working in the non-profit realm. He saw that her true passion was in people development (“I loved being on a team! I learned it from MA and the basketball teams!”). He encouraged her to “serve people within an organization for a really great cause and help them thrive and feel empowered.”

During this season, she earned her MBA with a concentration in Organizational Development and Change Leadership from St. Thomas.

“I had been searching and longing for ways to give people support as I had gotten support as a little girl [from MA]. I wanted to give and create that space for opportunity for so many other people. Michael Jordan says it best, “We have an obligation to pay it forward to future generations.”

Breaking Barriers in Non-Profit Work

Her father, Mr. Keith Nance, encouraged her to apply for an entry-level job in Human Resources at the Minnesota Historical Society. She catapulted career-wise and was there for almost ten years, starting as a Human Resources Generalist and eventually becoming the Chief Human Resources and Inclusion Officer.

During her time there, she started the first Department of Organizational Development in a museum in the entire country. She recounts her ground-breaking role: “I am the first Black woman to hold that dual title in almost 200 years of history there, and I still am to this day. I was the youngest and the first to hold that title in a museum space in the country.” She also started the first employee resource group, was the chief negotiator for the very first union contract in the organization's 200-year history and created the first total rewards project that led to many other museums in the country shifting their pay practices.

After the MN Historical Society, Briana became the Board Chair for the Hallie Q. Brown Center in the heart of Rondo (one the oldest African American institutions in Minnesota and home to the historic area of St. Paul). They were going through an executive leadership transition and having been engaged with the community for 30 years (her very first basketball experience was playing elder Frank White’s basketball team on the Martin Luther King Jr. indoor court, now home to Hallie Q. Brown), she stepped in as the Interim Executive Director. Her role was to nurture the staff, manage the organization, and help the team work through a very challenging time of organizational change. The Executive Director role was meant for someone whose namesake and family history was rooted in Rondo. Briana would continue to support and nurture the staff and provide onboarding support to the new Executive Director, Benny Roberts.

After Hallie Q. Brown, Briana knew she wanted to go to an organization that centered on women and girls. For the length of her career this far, she had always centered women and young girls in her work. She had always had her eye on the Women’s Foundation of MN, the first Women’s Foundation established in the country, which has been around for over 40 years. She is currently the Executive VP of People and Culture, leading human resources, strategic communications and innovation, community impact work (the grant-making function), and advancement. “When someone asked me what superpower I hoped I’d have one day, I responded by saying I always wanted the power to give. To give enough resources to help our communities thrive. I’ve always wanted to have the power to give meaningful and impactful resources to communities, and this is one way of doing that.”

 

Final Reflections

“All of the places I have worked have incredible histories, and they have been established for a long time. It’s not lost on me that those are the organizations that I have led at the highest levels and that that is what I’ve gravitated towards. I’ve done systems change, equity, and people strategy work at the highest level of organizations and that’s what I love to do. I have always sought work that has been aligned with my own personal, core values as a human being. It allows for a genuine leadership approach in serving others to be the best they can be. I’m very passionate about amplifying marginalized voices and creating environments where everyone can thrive and see themselves as co-collaborators on our future forward.”

Briana offers one piece of advice: “I would tell people to believe in the dreams that they have, and to never stop dreaming, and to also find continuous opportunities to give gratitude, to name the gratitude, and to speak loudly about the gratitude that people have for everyone who helped them along the way. Don’t forget about the people along the way—for us to have gotten to where we are, someone else helped us along the way.”

 

“When I think of all of the steps that have been ordered for me, and the ways my life has unfolded, to me there is no other explanation other than that higher calling.”