Manali Shah

Co-Editor

Manali Shah has decades of experience as a journalist covering business and city affairs. She served as a business writer in Mumbai for India’s leading newspapers and magazines including Business India and The Economic Times. Her stories included coverage of the heady period in the 1990s when India implemented a number of business reforms and the country saw foreign investment pour in. She also has experience as a writer and editor for Franchise Times. Locally, she has covered city council meetings for the Oakdale Clarion and written and reported part-time for the Woodbury Bulletin. She has freelanced articles for Woodbury Magazine as well. 

Manali has deep roots in the area, after settling in Woodbury in the mid-1990s. As her children grew, she began volunteering at the school district, first in classrooms and then on several different committees including the Gifted and Talented Kids’ program, Superintendent’s Advisory Committee, Citizens’ Financial Advisory Committee.

Since 2002, she has been very involved in serving with many organizations and commissions in the City of Woodbury and Washington County, including:

• Environment Advisory Commission 7 years
• Economic Development Commission 7 years
• Destination Woodbury Task Force
• Gold Line Bus Rapid Transit Citizens’ Committee
• Woodbury Days Board Member – 7 years
• Woodbury Community Foundation – Board Member since 2021
• Woodbury Thrives 
• Press Forward Minnesota
• SoWashCoCARES Board Member
• Woodbury News Net – Leadership Team

Writing has always been her passion, and she even considered starting a newsletter for Woodbury. A conversation with Woodbury Mayor Anne Burt connected her to Kathy Saltzman who had a similar idea and in a short 12 months, with the help of a dedicated group, that dream is on its onward journey.