TCDF to Present ‘Community Wealth Building in the Age of Recovery’
The COVID-19 pandemic is a public health and economic crisis of unprecedented proportions for communities across the country. With millions out of work and resources drying up, communities face a Herculean task of recovery under the most difficult of circumstances. Meanwhile, historically underserved members of our communities risk slipping further and further behind.
Community wealth building offers strategies for moving forward. The community wealth building approach to economic development strengthens communities from within and from the ground up. When broadly embraced and effectively undertaken, it can help to address inequities and create more inclusive and resilient local economies where economic opportunity is available to all.
The crisis has provided an opening to rebuild our economies thoughtfully and inclusively, but the planning work must begin now to take advantage of this moment.
Join our all-star panel of community wealth building experts for a solutions-oriented discussion as we take a deep dive into the strategies and actions communities can undertake to build a more inclusive, secure, and inspiring post-pandemic world.
Speakers
Moderator
Date: Wednesday, September 2, 2020
Time: 12:45 CDT login; 1:00pm – 2:30pm CDT program
Location: Zoom webinar
Register by: 12:00pm on Tuesday, September 1st
This event is free, but registration is required. Space is limited.
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Sponsored By
Speaker Biographies
Joanna Trotter
Joanna Trotter is senior director of community impact for The Chicago Community Trust. Trotter leads the Trust’s strategic focus on closing the region’s racial wealth gap. This includes systemic and programmatic efforts to build income and assets in communities of color and for people of color, and addressing debt and fee practices that target and strip wealth.
Prior to joining the Trust, Trotter served as director of neighborhood development for the University of Chicago’s Office of Civic Engagement where she guided and coordinated University investments largely in the Woodlawn and Washington Park communities. At the University, she forwarded efforts to develop an arts corridor in Washington Park, develop a new school facility, support community engagement around the Obama Presidential Center and revamp the University’s longstanding Employer-Assisted Housing Program to better align its incentives with neighborhood reinvestment goals. Trotter also spent ten years forwarding the Metropolitan Planning Council’s community building work across the seven-county Chicago region. By providing technical assistance and support to communities, Trotter worked to inform and increase opportunities consistent with MPC’s broader policy goals of creating a more equitable, sustainable and competitive region, such as enhancing local connections between housing, employment and transportation. In 2013, she was promoted to vice president of programs, directing MPC’s community development activity and providing leadership to the organization as whole as part of MPC’s management team.
Trotter holds a M.A from the University of California Los Angeles in Urban and Regional Planning and is raising her two children in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood with her husband Shaan.
Jacky Grimshaw
Jacky joined CNT in 1992 and has since developed its capacity to engage in public policy advocacy and transportation planning, transportation research, environmental justice, public participation tool development, GIS mapping, community economic development and air quality. Jacky advocates for and provides expertise to increase transit in the Chicago region. She created and led CNT’s transportation and air quality programs and led CNT’s Transit Future campaign in the fight for mass transit reform and dedicated funding in the Chicago region. Since 2005, she has led CNT’s policy efforts at all levels of government.
Jacky has served on numerous boards, including Chicago Transit Authority, National Academy of Sciences’ Transportation Research Board’s Environmental Justice and Public Involvement Committees. She has just completed terms on the Women’s Issues in Transportation Committee.
Prior to CNT, Jacky spent time as a researcher in hematology and gastroenterology, in both state and federal government, in the Chicago Public School district and served in numerous other capacities, including political advisor for the late Mayor Harold Washington and Director of the Mayor’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.
Jacky has completed the Master of Arts in Public Policy requirements at Governors State University and holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Marquette University in Milwaukee.
Rick Guzman
Rick Guzman is the Executive Director of The Neighbor Project, a grass-roots housing and community development organization that was formed through the merger of Joseph Corporation and Emmanuel House, two long-time housing and home-ownership non-profits based in Aurora, Illinois. Prior to that, Guzman served as the City of Aurora’s Manager of the Community Development Division and as the Mayor’s Deputy Chief of Staff from 2011 – 2018 working on housing, economic development and neighborhood planning. Guzman and his wife, Desiree, co-founded “Emmanuel House” in Aurora in 2002 to help lower-income families break the cycle of working-class poverty through a unique and dignified pathway to homeownership. In 2016, Emmanuel House’s “Networked Savings Program” was recognized as one of the “100 most innovative non-profit or social enterprise programs in the world,” as a Classy Award finalist. The Classy Awards are presented by The Stanford Social Innovation Review and The United Nations Foundation to honor and bring together, “the brightest minds and boldest leaders that are solving problems through innovation.” The “Networked Savings” program—now a core program of The Neighbor Project—continues to partner closely with churches, local government, civic organizations and other non-profits in the greater Aurora area. Previously, Guzman worked at the State of Illinois as a Policy Advisor to the Governor for Criminal Justice—which included working on issues of human rights and the death penalty moratorium. And in 2004, he was appointed by the Governor to direct Illinois’ prisoner reentry reform efforts. He graduated summa cum laude from North Central College in 1999 and magna cum laude from NIU College of Law where he was awarded the Thurgood Marshall Award for Human Rights. In April of 2019, Guzman was elected to a six-year term to serve as a Trustee of Waubonsee Community College. Guzman continues to serve on numerous additional Boards and Commissions working on public policy issues in state and local government and the non-profit world. Rick and his wife, Desiree, live near downtown Aurora with their two daughters.
Terri Haymaker
Terri Haymaker, Senior Vice President of Real Estate Solutions, is responsible for the leadership and management of activities relating to IFF’s real estate consulting and project management practice.
The Real Estate Solutions team supports the strategic growth of nonprofits by addressing their real estate challenges to help them achieve their vision and goals. The Real Estate Solutions team guides the planning, designing, development and construction of facilities. Terri provides broad executive level oversight for the department, including financial and resource planning for sustainable growth, strategic direction for programmatic and organizational, project evaluation for alignment with IFF objectives, and successful collaboration with other departments in order to coordinate all IFF efforts to better serve the needs of our partners and clients.
Prior to joining IFF, Terri Haymaker served as the Chief Planning Officer, from 2008-15, for the Public Building Commission, the City of Chicago’s public building developer. She managed the project planning phase for all municipal capital projects and also oversaw the technology/surveillance and energy efficiency programs. From 1998-2008, Terri was the Deputy Commissioner for the Central District in the City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development, leading the planning and economic development activities of the downtown and surrounding neighborhoods, including land use and community planning, infill redevelopment projects, and business attraction and retention. Terri’s non-profit experience includes serving as the Executive Director of the Greater Northwest Development Corporation, managing the community-based redevelopment of a commercial district on the northwest side of Chicago. She has received her Masters of Urban Planning and Policy from University of Illinois at Chicago. Terri serves on Chicago Community Land Trust board and is a member of Urban Land Institute, Lambda Alpha-International land economics society, American Planning Association, and Metropolitan Planning Council.
Kathleen Mulligan
Kathleen Mulligan is the Co-Director of the National Labor Leadership Initiative and on the staff of the Worker Institute. She has worked in the labor movement for 20 years, since founding and co-chairing a groundbreaking campaign in Milwaukee to change how the city subsidized urban redevelopment. That coalition innovated new strategies to create more union construction jobs and build more powerful relationships between community and labor partners. She served as Deputy Director of the Partnership for Working Families, supporting coalitions in 25 cities to win similar campaigns, and developing research and policy tools to help those campaigns succeed. As Deputy Director for the AFL-CIO’s GOLD Team (Governance, Organization & Leadership Development) she helped state federations and central labor councils build shared campaigns with community partners.
Kathleen is a master facilitator. She teaches yoga and practices yoga and meditation, and brings the lessons of those practices into efforts to strengthen the labor movement and build power for working people. She has a deep commitment to lifting up racial justice and building more equitable organizations and movements. She has a PhD in Political Science from University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Zach Lowe
Zach Lowe is Director of Planning & Programming for the Tri-Council Development Fund, a collaboration of labor-management organizations in the Illinois finishing trades dedicated to strengthening communities and promoting economic justice. He is responsible for advancing organizational strategy, developing new programming initiatives, and building strategic partnerships with community stakeholders.
Zach is a real estate and construction industry veteran specializing in market analysis, public and private-sector development planning, affordable housing, asset-based economic development strategy for community wealth building, and labor-management initiatives. He has spent more than 20 years helping to build value for public and private sector entities and strengthen communities. His work has taken him from coast to coast to tackle a wide variety of research, planning, and community advancement challenges. Along the way, he has written and spoken widely on real estate and community revitalization topics.
Zach is a board member for the Ely Chapter of Lambda Alpha International, the society for land economics professionals. Additionally, he serves as Chair of the Board of Directors for the Chicago Center for Urban Life and Culture, a nonprofit educational organization that prepares college students and other participants for critical reflection and civic engagement using the City of Chicago as a teaching tool.