Polk Bros. Foundation CEO Sandra P. Guthman and Executive Director Nikki Will Stein will retire at the end of December. The foundation then will merge the two positions into one leadership role—Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation. For two decades, Guthman and Stein have led the foundation in providing grants to nearly 800 local nonprofit organizations. Guthman will continue to serve as board chair through November 2018.
Jay Travis is now a program officer at the Woods Fund of Chicago. For more than a decade, Travis was the executive director of the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO), one of the city’s oldest grassroots organizations.
Butch Trusty has been named senior program officer for the Joyce Foundation’s Education Program, and Jason Quiara is the foundation’s new Program Officer for Education. Both will join the staff in June. Trusty currently is a manager with The Bridgespan Group, a nonprofit strategy consulting firm in New York City. He has worked with a wide range of nonprofit and philanthropic organizations focused on education reform and policy change, including two large urban school districts; the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation; the Education Equality Project; and the NAACP LDF. Quaira is from Jobs For the Future, a Boston-based national nonprofit organization that helps states strengthen their education and workforce development policies. As Senior Project Manager for state policy development and advocacy, Quiara has led a multi-state initiative aimed at improving secondary and postsecondary education outcomes for low-income and minority students.
Warren Chapman, vice chancellor for external affairs at the University of Illinois Chicago, is moving over to Columbia College, where he will serve as senior vice president, overseeing the transition to a new president in two years and responsible for marketing, communications, media, planning, compliance and research. Chapman is a member of the Catalyst Editorial Advisory Board and the board of Community Renewal Society, the publisher of Catalyst.
Attallah Wilson, a senior at Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy, and Stevie Bailey, a senior at Chicago International Charter School (CICS) Longwood, were winners of the 7th annual citywide business plan contest sponsored by the Future Founders Foundation. Attallah won in the products and services division for Stick and Zips, a product that helps keep opened food fresh. Stevie won in the technology division for 10 Trey Records, an online music production company for aspiring artists and producers.
Gabrielle Lyon and Paul Sereno, co-founders of Project Exploration, have been named 2012 National Afterschool for All Champions by the Afterschool Alliance for their dedication to afterschool programming.
Monique Blakes, a first grade teacher at Oscar DePriest Elementary School; Elizabeth Luna, a kindergarten teacher at Murray Language Academy; and Susan Stephan, a first and second grade teacher at Norwood Park Elementary have been named Golden Apple Excellence in Teaching Award recipients for the 2011-2012 school year. The three CPS educators are among 10 recipients of the Golden Apple Awards for Excellence in Teaching and were selected from a pool of 560 nominees from throughout the Chicago metropolitan area.
Fund for Teachers awarded 34 Chicago teachers $155,000 in grants to travel the world this summer. When the school year concludes, they will embark on learning adventures that they designed in 17 different countries. Since 2005, 317 CPS teachers have leveraged $1.2M in Fund for Teachers grants to inspire authentic learning in 218 schools across the city.