Marcus Grubbs

Community Planner and small business owner

Marcus's best days are spent helping customers, community members, and partners to find mission alignment and move collaborate projects forward together. He is passionate about engaging stakeholders in strategic planning around economic development, natural resources, and sustainability. 

Marcus is currently working as Principal Planner in the State of Minnesota, Department of Administration, Office of Enterprise Sustainability. His focus is on enterprise-level strategic planning in the areas of fleet, energy, water, and greenhouse gases towards meeting the State's sustainability goals. 

Marcus has been very fortunate to have previously worked for: 1) the Agricultural Utilization Research Institute identifying new commercialization opportunities for agricultural co-products; 2) Future-iQ on regional and local strategic planning efforts around economic development; 3). the University of Minnesota as coordinator of the New Agricultural Bioeconomy Project, a stakeholder engagement process promoting improved rural economies, returns for farmers, and environmental outcomes; and 4) the Headwaters Regional Development Commission doing land use planning, economic development planning, hazard mitigation planning, and board management for the Northwest Emergency Communications Board. 

He earned a Bachelors of Arts in Environmental Studies from the University of Minnesota-Morris, and a Masters of Urban and Regional Planning specializing in Environmental and Infrastructure Planning and Economic and Workforce Development at the University of Minnesota Humphrey School of Public Affairs. 

He previously served on the Statewide Geospatial Advisory Council, the Statewide Wood Energy Team, Heating the Midwest, the City of Bemidji Sustainability Committee, and hosted a TV show on Upstream TV called Bemidji Uncut. 

In his spare time, Marcus is an avid runner, participates in the Big Brother Big Sister program of the Twin Cities, and operates a small business under the name of MA Grubbs Enterprises Inc where he, among other things, provides small business consulting services. 

Some of his most recent interests are in exploring ideas about how stakeholders can better understand their community, landscape, and their relation to each other by improving data visualizations.