Anni O. Simons

Anni guides clients in the Health and Human Services arena to proactively advance their causes and respond to legislative issues at the Minnesota State Capitol.

Anni leads her clients through all stages of the state policy development process, including drafting legislation, overseeing introductions of bills, moving bills forward within the legislative process, and engaging with the Minnesota Legislature, the Governor’s Office and other state agencies on behalf of her clients.

Anni typically assumes a leadership role on her clients’ projects, often managing the step-by-step process of moving a bill though its stages including anticipating various contingencies. To prepare for a successful outcome, she engages on behalf of her client with other stakeholder groups, both supportive and adversarial, to best accommodate their feedback. Anni often manages relations and coordinates responsibilities within the coalitions of which her clients are a part and helps to surmount the many challenges and complexities that can emerge throughout the legislative process.

She has a deep knowledge of the complex issues affecting Minnesota’s legislative policy in the areas of Medicaid waivered services, disability services and mental health services. In the course of her legislative work, she has built a broad network of connections with relevant stakeholders at the legislature, state agencies, Governor’s office, service provider organizations and advocacy organizations. Prior to joining Fredrikson, she served as the Senior Manager of Policy and Programs for a large coalition of Health and Human Services provider and advocacy organizations. Her commitment to the legislative work in the field of disability and mental health services, stemming from personal connections to these services, makes Anni a passionate advocate for her clients.

• Served as a leader over multiple legislative sessions of the “Best Life Alliance”, a statewide, nonpartisan coalition of more than 100 organizations that has successfully secured state investments in the reimbursement rates for Home and Community Based Disability Services. These reimbursement rate increases, implemented during multiple legislative sessions, have resulted in significant annual ongoing increased funding for the critical services that support Minnesotans with disabilities to remain living as independently as possible in the community.

• Co-facilitated yearlong collaborative process involving ongoing negotiations with mental health advocacy groups and Minnesota state agencies to craft and successfully pass into law comprehensive legislation to broaden the paths qualified candidates can take into the mental health services workforce. By addressing the previously narrow, prescriptive and complex statutory requirements for background qualifications, the enacted law provided a concrete step forward in mental health service providers’ ability to carry out their missions.

• Worked with clients to successfully remove and insert specific policy and funding provisions included in Minnesota’s Health and Human Services statutory language.
• Led clients through the development of comprehensive grassroots advocacy programs that connect the client with legislators of the districts in which the client provides services, resulting in increased long-term legislative familiarity and support for the client’s services.
• Lobbied and coordinated the grassroots efforts for coalition of disability provider and advocacy organizations.

Education

• Columbia University, M.S., 2008
• University of Wisconsin, B.A., 2007

• Policy Fellow, University of Minnesota Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, 2015/2016 Cohort

Professional Activities

• Minneapolis Downtown Council, Health Care Human Services and Wellness Workstream, Member, 2023
• Citizen’s League, Member, 2011-present
• Minnesota Governmental Relations Council, Member, 2018-present

Community

• LSS Refugee Services, Volunteer, 2022-present
• Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Twin Cities, Big Sister, 2010-2020
• Arc MN, Board Committee Member, 2012-2014