The mission of the Corporate Coalition of Chicago is to build a corporate culture in Chicago where companies understand that reducing racial and economic inequities is essential to their business success and a thriving regional economy.
The Corporate Coalition was convened in 2019 by business leaders who came together to find ways for the business sector to use its assets, capabilities, and employee enthusiasm in new ways to address economic and racial inequities across all neighborhoods in the Chicago region.
Members believe that to reduce long-standing and continuing inequities and create a thriving economy, companies must stretch beyond their important philanthropic contributions and beyond the responsibility all have to help the non-profit and public sectors be successful. Firms must challenge business as usual to create opportunities through their core business functions, including talent acquisition, employee support and advancement, site location, procurement, capital investments, and more.
Today the Coalition includes more than 40 corporate members and 23 anchor partners—
non-profits who help center the Coalition’s work on community-defined issues and needs.
Our Leadership Council is comprised of business executives and anchor partner leaders who collectively guide the work of the Coalition.
Roger Hochschild, Co-Chair
Discover
Eileen Mitchell, Co-Chair
AT&T Illinois
Gil C. Quiniones, Co-Chair
ComEd
Tom Andreesen
Protiviti Inc.
Patrick Besler
Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC)
Sean Garrett
United Way Metro Chicago
Sarah Glavin
Amazon
Catina Latham
UChicago Medicine
Max Leichtman
ComEd
Tim Liston
EY
Rob McGhee
Fifth Third Bank
Linda Nolan
Northern Trust
Matthew Primack
Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center
Curtis Reed, Jr.
J.P.Morgan Chase & Co.
Shandra Richardson
The Chicago Community Trust
Julia Stasch
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Philanthropy Executive in Residence
University of Chicago Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation
Anne Vela-Wagner
Mars Wrigley
Leon Walker
DL3 Realty
Audrey Williams-Lee
Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago
Lincoln Chandler
Senior Advisor
Lincoln focuses on the Coalition's learning and evaluation efforts. In his own consulting practice, and in prior roles with the Civic Consulting Alliance and McKinsey and Company, Lincoln has worked with senior leaders across multiple sectors (public, private, and nonprofit) on large-scale transformations and the effective use of data, often working in and communicating across several disciplines.
Steph Dolan
Program Director
Steph manages the Coalition's Fair Chance Hiring efforts, bringing experience in the private, public and nonprofit sectors. Most recently, she was a Senior Advisor at Fair and Just Prosecution, a national criminal justice reform organization, and a Principal at Civic Consulting Alliance, where she led public safety and economic vitality engagements.
Mariel Edokwe
Program Manager
Mariel guides various Fair Chance Hiring efforts at the Coalition, bringing a strong background in strategy, policy, and philanthropy. She holds an M.S. in Social Policy and has held roles at the Obama Foundation, The Joyce Foundation, and other mission-driven organizations.
Brian Fabes
Managing Director
Brian has led the team since the inception of the Coalition. For the previous fifteen years, Brian served as Chief Executive Officer of Civic Consulting Alliance (CCA). Before CCA, Brian served as Senior Vice President, Acting Provost and Vice President for Planning at National Louis University, at Associate Principal at McKinsey & Company, and Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Arizona.
Marcos Gonzales
Director, Chicago Resiliency Network
Marcos serves as the Director for the Chicago Resiliency Network. Prior to this, he served as the Director of Trauma-Informed Education at Chicago Jesuit Academy. He brings a breadth of experience in the nonprofit and education sectors, and a passion for advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.
Stefanie Hest
Senior Director
Stefanie brings extensive experience in financial services to the Coalition. Prior to joining, Stefanie was a Senior Vice President at Northern Trust, where she focused on investment solutions for institutional clients in addition and led the Women’s Leadership Development initiatives. She currently serves as the Board Chair for Chicago-based nonprofit Share Our Spare and board director at Family Service of Glencoe.
Don Laackman
Senior Advisor
Don focuses on the Coalition’s Fair Chance Hiring efforts. He previously served as chief program officer and interim president of Heartland Alliance. Additionally, he served as president of Champlain College and earlier as president of Harold Washington College (one of the City Colleges of Chicago). Don launched his non-profit career as a principal at Civic Consulting Alliance after a 23-year career as a managing director and partner at Accenture.
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Kevin Nigarura
Associate Director
Kevin supports the Coalition's Fair Chance Hiring, Chicago Resiliency Network, and corporate hiring change initiatives, leveraging his experience supporting public, private, and nonprofit organizations through large change and transformation projects. Prior to joining the Coalition, Kevin served as the Head of Client Services and Lead Strategist for Justice Informed, a Chicago-based social impact firm focused on creating inclusive and equitable workplace cultures, policies, and processes, and as an Associate with Civic Consulting Alliance.
Jevon Thoresen
Program Director
Jevon leads the Coalition's Workplace Flex Fund and Hire Chicago initiatives. He also guides the Coalition's work at the intersection of artificial intelligence and workforce equity, with a particular focus on workers most at risk of being left behind. Jevon brings deep employer-side experience from a nine-year career at LinkedIn, where as Senior Director he led global organization partnering with hundreds of the world's largest employers to reshape how talent is identified, developed, and advanced. In that role, he also co-led LinkedIn's Member and Customer Success Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Council, driving initiatives that measurably increased belonging scores, informed go-to market strategies, and significantly expanded leadership representation for underrepresented employees. He serves on the Board of Directors of MetroSquash and is active in workforce development programming through his faith community.
Meghan Phillipp
Program Director, Member Engagement & Event Strategy
Meghan leads the Coalition's member engagement and event strategy efforts, stewarding corporate member relationships and overseeing a portfolio of convenings and activities that drive connection, value, and retention. She brings over two decades of experience spanning health care, social impact, and the nonprofit sector, with deep expertise in stakeholder engagement, partnership development, and the design of high-impact events. She holds an MBA as a Baumhart Scholar from Loyola University Chicago and studied music and theatre at Lawrence University.
Antoine Watson
Operations Manager
Antoine Watson supports our day to day operations. A proud graduate of Year Up, he also served as an Internship Service Manager for the organization. Previously, he worked as an Account Manager for Uber Freight.
Holli Wertheimer
Chief Operating Officer
Holli coordinates the Coalition’s day-to-day operations, co-leads the Corporate Connector initiative, and manages our Communications efforts including coordinating our Business UNusual stories. She previously worked for PwC and UChicago Medicine as a supply chain operations consultant.
