Earl Ross
VICE PRESIDENT OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Earl has worked with CultureBrokers as an independent contractor since its start in 2005. He joined as a fulltime executive in 2020.
Since 2007, Earl has worked with local, state, and national leaders to impact systems and reduce racial, ethnic, and gender disparities within county and state youth justice institutions. An effective leader and change agent, Earl has launched and improved reform efforts in such diverse locations as Wisconsin, Louisiana, and Minnesota. Earl works primarily in the areas of cultural diversity and inclusion, community engagement, youth justice reform, and arts & culture.
Earl has worked with CultureBrokers as an independent contractor since its start in 2005. He joined as a fulltime executive in 2020.
Since 2007, Earl has worked with local, state, and national leaders to impact systems and reduce racial, ethnic, and gender disparities within county and state youth justice institutions. An effective leader and change agent, Earl has launched and improved reform efforts in such diverse locations as Wisconsin, Louisiana, and Minnesota. Earl works primarily in the areas of cultural diversity and inclusion, community engagement, youth justice reform, and arts & culture.
A nationally recognized consultant with the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the W. Haywood Burns Institute, Earl worked with local and state-level officials to restructure youth criminal justice reform in Louisiana. This led to investment in more robust data collection, analysis, and reports, which greatly improved system-wide outcomes for young people. It resulted in the largest reductions of juvenile detention in state history. Later, while working with an array of community organizations, elected officials, and agency employees, Earl implemented the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) for Wisconsin. Earl continues to be a lead consultant and state team advisor for the ongoing work of the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the W. Haywood Burns Institute.
Within the arts, Earl helped to develop and to implement strategic plans for several non-profit arts organizations. His efforts as influencer and project manager assured successful programmatic partnerships between Walker West Music Academy and the American Composers Forum. That initiative connected the history of Saint Paul’s Rondo Community and African American composer Stephen Newby to debut the Rondo Oratorio. Work with the Leigh Morris Chorale, Minnesota’s only chorus to focus solely on performing choral concert works of African American composers, fostered successful cultural and artistic exchanges with VocalEssence, the Minnesota Chorale, and SASE: The Write Place among others. More recently, Earl has worked to increase the number of black and brown string players in the Twin Cities’ youth orchestras. This focus led to a partnership with a new initiative created by the conductor, Roderick Cox.











