Mirja Hanson has 35 years of experience assisting managers, public officials, school administrators, and executive directors in over 200 public, private and not-for-profit organizations with strategic and business planning, group decision making, guidance with mergers, restructuring and transitions, leadership development, and other organization management services.

Mirja is a leading expert in facilitating binding agreements and large-scale partnerships between diverse stakeholders and has compiled key findings and advice about consensus-based decision making in her latest publication, Clues to Achieving Consensus: A Leader's Guide to Navigating Collaborative Problem Solving (2005). "Natural and human habitats" has been a focal point of Mirja's practice in the past:

• Sustainable development initiatives at local, regional, and national levels, including statewide forest, natural resources, and water quality planning in Minnesota, Tennessee, and Mississippi; Cooperative Eco-system Study Unit (partnerships between universities and natural resources agencies) in the Southern Appalachian, Chesapeake Watershed, and Great Lakes/Northern Forests regions, U.S. Forest Service, Chiba Wetlands Restoration Project in Japan, and the United Nations Development Program
• Affordable housing and sustainable homeownership efforts with organizations such as the MN Housing Finance Agency, MN Home Ownership Center network of first-time home-buyer services, MN Association of Realtors and many regional housing services organizations
• Public policy and administration decision  making at all government levels—from hundreds of municipalities, to over 25 agencies and commissions in Minnesota, Illinois, and Tennessee, as well as the U.S. House of Representatives
• Economic and transportation development projects in Minnesota, such as the Taconite Industry Cost Reduction Initiative, Governor's Commission on Minnesota's Mining Future, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities customized training program, and cross-sector transportation planning and engineering alliances of the University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies
• Education and youth development planning with the Minnesota State Board of Education, Department of Education, school effectiveness projects with numerous K–12 districts
• Health and human services policy and delivery improvement in adult mental health, independent living for elders, and the disabled and health/home care for homeless individuals and families

Over the years, Mirja has served in both external and internal consulting roles. Prior to private practice with M.P. Hanson Associates in Minnesota, she was a senior, in-house consultant for the State of Minnesota. She conducted comprehensive agency audits and advised public managers. She executed special assignments—as director of Minnesota's award-winning quality improvement program, coordinator of Minnesota World Trade Center's international Pacific Rim trade conference, and Director of Transition for the Twin Cities Metropolitan Council. Before public service, Mirja was a consultant at the Osaka (Japan), Kansas City, and Minneapolis offices of the Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA), a worldwide community and organization development organization with U.N. consultative status.

Mirja holds a Doctorate in Education from the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, an MBA from the University of Minnesota, and BA from Metropolitan State University. She is an adjunct professor at the University of St. Thomas, instructor for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities and guest lecturer at the University of Minnesota, University of St. Catherine and Bethel University on the topics of conflict resolution and citizen participation in public policy.

Mirja is a past president of the International Association of Facilitators, Global Facilitator Service Corps, Japan America Society of Minnesota and Simpson Housing Services. She spent her first two decades in Japan as a part of a missionary family from Finland and now lives in Minnesota. She is fluent in English, Finnish and Japanese.