De Anna Conover serves as the assistant commissioner for Employee Culture for the Minnesota Department of Human Services. With a focus on fostering a holistic workplace, authentic engagement and strategy, Conover provides critical leadership to several core divisions of DHS, including human resources, talent management and development, employee health, wellness and engagement, change management, conflict resolution and restorative practices, and recruiting and retention.
Conover has over 25 years of experience in organizational development and effectiveness, leadership development, strategic planning and learning and development. Previously, Conover served as interim director of community relations, strengthening relationships between DHS, the community and legislative bodies.
Her tenure at DHS includes serving as the director of employee engagement and retention, organizational development consultant, and learning and development consultant, as well as leading the development and implementation of agencywide Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), an agencywide mentoring program, employee engagement surveys and leadership conferences. She is also the executive sponsor for the enterprise-wide Black, Indigenous, Women of Color (BIWOC) ERG, the DHS Black Women ERG and the DHS People of Color ERG and is involved in various community and business boards and leadership councils.
Prior to joining DHS, she worked as a development and learning consultant with Minnesota Management and Budget, where she led enterprise-wide leadership programming and employee engagement initiatives.
Conover is an alumna of the University of Minnesota and University of St. Thomas and is certified in several leadership, facilitation and learning and development programs. She is fluent in German and Spanish.
