Social change
In my paid work, I've occupied a variety of different roles in Chicago's nonprofit sector, as a funder and fundraiser, program developer, capacity builder, strategizer, researcher, synthesizer and facilitator. I have more than 15 years of experience creating and implementing effective initiatives and strengthening organizations, with expertise in systems thinking, grantmaking, collective impact, collaboration, meaningful stakeholder engagement, youth development, racial, social and environmental justice, and community development and organizing.
As a Senior Consultant with Foresight Design Initiative, I've spent more than a decade leading consulting projects and professional development cohorts for diverse funders, coalitions and organizations working on affordable housing, the racial wealth gap, Equitable Transit-Oriented Development, environmental sustainability, and other issues. I also served as Program Director for Foresight Prep, a summer leadership development and experiential learning opportunity for high school students passionate about social justice, the climate crisis, and creating change, leading our outreach/marketing, fundraising, curriculum development, staff oversight, and teaching. Prior to my time with Foresight, I was program staff at Crossroads Fund, an activist-led community foundation that supports grassroots and radical social movement groups in the Chicago region.
Beyond my paid work, my time, energy, and hope belong to radical movements for social, racial and economic justice and collective liberation, including police and prison abolition, transformative justice, and disability justice. I have an emerging interest in healing justice and somatic practices.
Project Porfolio
Crossroads Fund Evaluation Tool
Crossroads Fund is a community foundation that supports movements for social, racial, and economic justice. Working with Lisa Marie Pickens, Crossroads Fund staff, and a group of community organizers and experienced evaluators, we created this tool to gauge the social change impact of the foundation and its grantees.
Foresight Prep Summer Institute Syllabus
For the past decade, I have directed Foresight Prep, a summer experiential learning and leadership development opportunity for national high school students passionate about social justice, the climate crisis, and creating change, leading curriculum development, recruitment, fundraising, and staff oversight, and teaching course content. This is our most recent syllabus.
Elevated Chicago Workplan
Elevated Chicago is a multi-sectoral, regional collaborative focused on Equitable Transit-Oriented Development. To create this citywide/regional workplan, I synthesized individual workplans, and synthesized insights, goals and project priorities, from four neighborhood-based collaborations, three citywide working groups, and more than 15 coalition members, creating a framework to align members around the relationship between neighborhood-based capital projects and programs, and efforts for regional systems change.
Practitioner Engagement,
Chicago Community Trust
Chicago Community Trust
As part of supporting the team that developed one of the priority areas for the Chicago Community Trust's strategic plan, I co-designed and implemented four community and practitioner engagement sessions, through which nearly 50 individuals from government, the private sector, finance innovation, academia and diverse nonprofits shared their insights regarding cross-sectoral collaboration and systems change. I wrote this excerpt from our project's final report, describing our process, and synthesizing key takeaways from these sessions.
Guide to Transformative Philanthropy
For the Community Foundation of McHenry County, I helped lead a collaborative process with Foundation staff, board members and stakeholders to develop the Foundation's first high impact grantmaking initiative, facilitated Appreciative Inquiry sessions with foundation stakeholders to identify priorities for improved quality of life in the county, and co-authored this comprehensive handbook for Foundation staff in the implementation of a Collective Impact program.
Social justice op-eds
Resume
Work Experience
Foresight Design Initiative
Senior Consultant, Education & Equity
Chicago, IL
September 2012-Present
Lead innovation projects with social impact and sustainability-focused clients, including funders, regional agencies, and multi-stakeholder collaboratives;
Led strategic planning effort for diverse, nine-member coalition of affordable housing organizations, clarifying systems change strategy, and developing collaborative governance, communication, and implementation processes;
Supported the staff of a 90-year old, respected regional planning nonprofit in operationalizing goals from their strategic plan for racial equity;
Designed and implemented four community and practitioner engagement sessions for the nation's third largest community foundation, through which nearly 50 individuals from government, the private sector, finance innovation, academia, and diverse nonprofits shared their insights regarding cross-sector collaboration and systems change;
Facilitated two six-eight member "learning circles" for leaders of multi-stakeholder collaboratives in Chicago and Detroit, providing capacity-building through monthly group sessions and individual coaching on organizational challenges including self-care and boundary setting, trust-building, navigating power, and conflict resolution;
Created the first three-year workplan for a regional coalition focused on Equitable Transit-Oriented Development, synthesizing plans, insights, goals, and project priorities from four neighborhood-based collaborations, three citywide working groups, and more than 15 coalition members, and creating a framework to align members around the relationship between neighborhood-based capital projects, and efforts for regional systems change;
Led a collaborative program development process with staff, board members and stakeholders of an exurban/rural community foundation, facilitating Appreciative Inquiry sessions to identify priorities for improved quality of life, and creating a roadmap for their first Collective Impact grantmaking intiative;
Contribute to the organization's board development, financial oversight, staff wellbeing, business development, and strategic planning.
Foresight Prep
Program Director
2014-ongoing
Direct and teach annual leadership development and experiential learning summer program and ongoing network for national, diverse high school students passionate about social justice, the climate crisis and creating change;
Lead curriculum development, fundraising, recruitment, staff oversight, and program logistics.
American Institutes for Research
Intern, Afterschool and Expanded Learning Team
January-June 2014
For graduate school field placement, conducted environmental scan, designed and implemented practitioner survey and interview protocol, and completed analysis to inform the development of a new program area targeting small youth and after school service providers.
Crossroads Fund
Program Associate
Jan 2008-Sep 2012
Supported grantmaking, technical assistance and other programs of public foundation focused on grassroots movements for social, racial and economic justice; coordinated community grantmaking committee; maintained grantee database; led site visit teams; prepared data on grantmaking priorities; and provided techinical assistance;
Co-developed evaluation tool to gauge the social change impact of the foundation and its grantees.
Social Movement Organizing & Volunteer Positions
Social Movement Organizing & Volunteer Positions
Nonprofit Industrial Complex Practitioners Lab
Member, July-September 2024
Co-strategizing to address the de-radicalizing constraints imposed upon organizers and social movements by nonprofit funding mechanisms and professionalization.
Pushing Envelopes
Collective Member, 2023-Present
Participate in penpal, mail reply and fundraising efforts of organization led by and focused on currently and formerly incarcerated LGBTQIA individuals.
Member, Giving Project
Crossroads Fund, Feb 2023 - Jun 2023
Helped raise more than $100,000 and practiced participatory grantmaking to support strategic, necessary, and underfunded social justice organizing work.
Guild Row
Organizer, Abolition Study Group
June-July 2023
Convened six-member, eight-week learning group at neighborhood-based, social impact-focused co-work space, where individuals interested in better understanding the police and prison abolition movement undertook deep learning and relationship-building, toward the aim of more informed action.
Donors Forum (Now Forefront)
Chair, Funding LGBT Issues Group
Summer-2011-Fall 2012
Chaired member issue group at Illinois' premier membership association for grantmakers, nonprofits, and advisors, convening programs to advocate for philanthropic support of LGBTQIA issues and communities.
Access Living
Program Facilitator
Jan 2009-Fall 2011
Facilitated social support group for LGBT youth with disabilities, developing monthly activities and managing outreach and communications.
Professional Development
Professional Development
Crossroads Fund Giving Project, February-June 2023
Over the course of six months, this group had deep personal conversations on race and class, made a monetary donation that was significant to us, fundraised though our network through a process of “donor organizing,” and practiced participatory grant-making supporting strategic, necessary, and underfunded social justice organizing work around the city.Embodied Social Justice Certificate, Transformative Change, April-July 2022
This 3-month program explored how we embody unjust social conditions, how oppression affects our relationship with our body, and how we can harness the body’s wisdom in making our social justice work more grounded, responsive, and sustainable.Adaptive Space Learning Group, Adaptive Space Network, January-March 2021
This learning and practice community focused on confronting challenges of complexity, oppression and trauma, community-led development, facilitative leadership, and strategies of co-creation.Saathi Impact Consulting, February-September 2019
Organizational and individual coaching with Bina Patel of Saathi Impact Consulting, focused on antiracism, decolonization, anti-oppression, and belonging practices.Rev Up Program, Chicago Freedom School, Spring 2011
Professional development program for individuals working with youth or supporting youth-led activism. Trained in best practices for supporting youth leadership development, social and emotional growth and issue-based organizing campaigns.
Education
University of Illinois at Chicago
M.Ed., Youth Development
August 2012-May 2014
Training to promote emotional, physical, social, and intellectual developmental needs of young people in urban contexts.
DePaul University
B.A., Women's and Gender Studies
2004-2007
Graduated with honors; Recipient, Excellence in Critical Analysis for Social Change Award; Received Ballenger Memorial Scholarship for Women's and Gender Studies for excellence in academic and activist engagement.