Megan L Sanders
- National Training Consultant
- sand1041@umn.edu
- Phone
- +1 612-624-6830
- Address
- Masonic Institute on the Developing Brain
Rm 1-305B1g [map]
2025 E River Pkwy
MInneapolis, MN 55414
Megan Sanders is a national workforce consultant at the University of Minnesota's Institute on Community Integration. She provides training, consultation, and technical assistance to provider organizations, states, and individuals to address workforce challenges for direct support professionals (DSPs) and frontline supervisors (FLSs). Using data and best practices, her work informs strategies to support the recruitment, selection, training, and retention of DSPs and FLSs. She earned master's degrees in social work and public policy from the University of Minnesota and a bachelor's degree from Truman State University. Working as both a DSP and a FLS before joining the ICI staff in 2020, Sanders learned firsthand how the field’s persistently high staff turnover and vacancy rates affected her and the people she supported.
“I loved the work, but I was at the group home all of my waking hours and was on call even while sleeping because of the workforce shortage, and that wasn’t sustainable,” Sanders said. “I knew I needed to contribute to systems-level solutions so that people being supported are truly part of their communities and don’t have to worry about whether their staff will show up the next day.”