Donna Nelson is a social worker who has been embedded with the Edina Police Department since August 2020. She originally split her time between Richfield and Edina but became fulltime here in Edina this past February. She will focus her presentation on her primarily mental health related work within the Edina Police Department using her Hennepin County social workers connections.Working with Hennepin County since August 1990, Donna has held a variety of positions; working with the developmentally disabled, families whose children are not attending school, runaways, children with mental health issues, youth charged with domestic violence against family members and homeless teens. Most recently she has been working at the hotels with the Afghan refugees while they were awaiting housing.
She worked for the Hennepin County Crisis team for about 10 years. Prior to taking this position with the Edina police departments, she was working at the hotels that housed homeless individuals during Covid.
Donna enjoys working with individuals and families and feels that she is a good resource for them and the officers in her department. She enjoys collaborative work, and being challenged She has earned both a BS and MA degree, and is a licensed social worker with the State of Minnesota.