Juanita Irizarry is a program officer in the basic human needs program at The Chicago Community Trust, providing program expertise, program management and grant making for the program. She also supports the advocacy work and grant making of the Fund for Persons with Disabilities and is currently working on projects managing collaborative organizational capacity-building initiatives for small nonprofits and developing food pantry networks in underserved Latino communities.
Before joining the Trust in 2009, Irizarry directed the Christian Community Development Association’s national training institute and was an adjunct instructor at DePaul University and Eastern University. She previously served as executive director of Latinos United (now Latino Policy Forum), presiding over the retooling and relaunching of the organization. Her previous professional experience includes directing the business development and homeownership divisions of The Resurrection Project, serving as associate director of Bickerdike Redevelopment Corporation, conducting apartment leasing for Hispanic Housing Development Corporation, and coordinating programs at the Olive Branch Mission.
Irizarry’s leadership led to a gubernatorial appointment to the executive committee of the Illinois Housing Task Force and a Hispanic Heritage Month Leadership Award from the City of Chicago Commission on Human Relations. She was a fellow in the 2006 Programa de Jóvenes Líderes Hispanos in Spain and the 2005 National Hispana Leadership Institute program. She currently serves on the board of the Chicago Alliance to End Homelessness, the Metropolitan Planning Council Housing and Community Development Committee, and the Puerto Rican Agenda task force. Irizarry earned a BA in history/political science and Spanish from Greenville College. She did graduate studies in urban planning and policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago and completed a Master of Public Administration degree at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
