Officers and Consultants
LISC/Chicago organizes capital and other resources to support initiatives that will stimulate the comprehensive development of healthy, stable neighborhoods and foster their connection to the socioeconomic mainstream of the metropolitan region. LISC's $158 million investment in Chicago's neighborhoods since 1980 has leveraged $4.3 billion in financing from private and public sources.
Officers
Andrew Mooney is executive director of the LISC/Chicago office. Mooney has extensive experience in housing, economic and community development. He has served as executive director and chairman of the Chicago Housing Authority, managed the Des Moines Chamber of Commerce and started a consulting firm focused on urban economic development, housing and labor issues. Mooney graduated from Notre Dame and received a master's degree from the University of Chicago. He joined LISC/Chicago in 1995.
Joel Bookman is the director of programs for LISC/Chicago. Bookman led comprehensive community development efforts on Chicago's Northwest Side for 25 years while serving as chief executive of the North River Commission and Lawrence Avenue Development Corporation. He has served as a consultant in strategic planning, economic and real estate development, and nonprofit management, and as a lecturer in nonprofit management at the North Park University Graduate School of Business. Bookman holds a master of urban planning and policy degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Susana L. Vasquez, the New Communities program director, handles overall program management for NCP as well as program officer responsibilities for five target communities: Quad Communities, Humboldt Park, Logan Square, Chicago Lawn and Auburn Gresham. She worked in community-based organizations for more than 12 years, most recently as deputy director of The Resurrection Project, a community development organization in the Pilsen neighborhood that serves as an NCP lead agency. She has a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Illinois and a master's degree in public administration from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.
Keri Blackwell is a program officer for three NCP communities—Little Village, North Lawndale and the Near West Side—and oversees LISC/Chicago's Building Community Through the Arts program and Neighborhood Sports Chicago. Blackwell has worked for LISC for more than 10 years, starting at its national office in New York before coming to Chicago. Prior to that she worked for the Democratic National Convention Committee. She holds a bachelor's degree in sociology and social welfare from the University of Wisconsin.
Ricki Granetz Lowitz advises NCP communities on workforce development and developing Centers for Working Families. Lowitz worked on employment issues for the Comprehensive Community Revitalization Program in the South Bronx, the program after which NCP is modeled. She holds a master's degree in public policy from Columbia University.
Jennifer McClain, a program officer, is responsible for the on-going management and training for the client tracking system used by the different Centers for Working Families sites across the country. She holds a master's degree in business administration from the Keller Graduate School of Management and a bachelor's in computer science from Dillard University. She previously worked for eight years at the Abraham Lincoln Centre on Chicago's South Side.
Sandra Womack is a program officer for three NCP communities, Pilsen, Washington Park and South Chicago, while working on Great Neighborhoods and employment initiatives for LISC/Chicago. Womack also administers the Leadership Fund, which provides training and technical assistance to community development organizations, and she manages LISC Chicago's/AmeriCorps program. She holds a master's degree in business administration from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management.
Marva Williams, a senior program officer since June 2007, is responsible for designing and implementing the Great Neighborhoods Program, a new comprehensive community development program. She also serves as a program officer in four Chicago communities participating in the New Communities Program. From 1996-2007, Williams was the senior vice president of the Woodstock Institute. She holds a master's degree in urban and regional planning from the University of Pittsburgh and a Ph.D. in urban planning and public policy from Rutgers University's Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.
Amadi Jordan-Walker serves as program assistant for LISC/Chicago. She joined the organization after working for WTTW Channel 11, Chicago's local PBS station. Jordan-Walker graduated in 2005 with a bachelor's degree in English from Duke University.
Chris Brown, LISC/Chicago's director of education programs, heads up the Elev8 program, in which four NCP communities are working with neighborhood middle schools to develop health centers, extended day learning programs, parental supports and increased parental involvement. He also has responsibility for green initiatives and is the program officer for the Woodlawn neighborhood. Brown has extensive experience in community organizing, public education and affordable housing development. He previously worked at the Steans Family Foundation, the United Way, the Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform and ACORN.
Gordon Walek joined LISC/Chicago as its communications manager in 2008, after a 9-year stint as a communications officer with the national LISC office. A graduate of The Ohio State University, he spent 20 years as a wire service and newspaper reporter and a newspaper columnist before coming to LISC.
Consultants
To supplement LISC staff, the NCP program uses a "scribe team" of contract writers, designers and photographers to manage and implement the program's communications components.
Patrick Barry is an expert on urban issues and Chicago neighborhoods, with 26 years experience as a free-lance journalist and editorial consultant. He has written for the Chicago Sun-Times, U.S. News & World Report and many nonprofit organizations. Barry directs staffing and manages the content for all NCP communication vehicles.
John McCarron worked for the Chicago Tribune as a reporter, columnist and editorial writer for 29 years and was vice president for strategy and communication for the Metropolitan Planning Council. McCarron is contributing editor of RE:NEW, writes articles and reports, and serves as NCP's in-house critic.
Ed Finkel has 17 years experience as a writer and editor, serving as managing editor of The Neighborhood Works and editor of the magazine and web site for Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism. He contributes to RE:NEW and is managing editor of this web site.
Other scribes are Maureen Kelleher, a former teacher and education writer with 11 years experience at the school-reform journal Catalyst-Chicago; and Elizabeth Duffrin, a writer and editor of education textbooks and award-winning writer at Catalyst-Chicago. The remainder of the scribe team includes Deborah Alexander, Jeanette Almada, Sally Duros, Matthew Field, Cristobal Martinez, Brent Michel, John O'Neill, Cindy Richards, Dan Stark, and Carl Vogel.
The NCP communications team also includes public relations consulting from MK Communications and Valerie Denney Communications; photographers Eric Young Smith and Juan Francisco Hernandez; the multimedia skills of Sarahmaria Gomez and Alex Fledderjohn of TuMultimedia; the graphic design firms Kym Abrams Design and Tuan Do Graphic Design; and Webitects, the firm that created this web site.
Communities
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