John Bouman is president and advocacy director of the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, a nonprofit policy and advocacy organization that advances economic justice and opportunity for low-income people. In his fifteen years leading the Shriver Center's advocacy team, Bouman has consulted and co-counseled with advocates throughout Illinois and in other states, helped draft numerous pieces of legislation and served as counsel in federal and state cases. He spearheaded the statewide efforts to create the FamilyCare and All Kids health care programs, and recently has been leading the Responsible Budget Coalition, an effort of more than 200 diverse organizations to advocate for state revenue and budget reform.

Rhonda Brown is the Vice President of Development for The Joffrey Ballet, a world-class dance company and dance education organization committed to artistic excellence, innovation and presentation of dance to broad and diverse audiences. Brown brings more than fifteen years of nonprofit fundraising and marketing experience to her role. She is responsible for the creation, implementation and evaluation of strategy to generate revenue. She is the co-founder of Fundamentally Sound, a basketball and youth development organization, the Founding President of the Spruce Park Advisory Council, a member of the Parent Advisory Council at The Latin School of Chicago and an exhibiting visual artist.

Monica Hairston O'Connell serves as Executive Director of the Center for Black Music Research (CBMR) at Columbia College Chicago. Through its conferences, publications, library and other programming, the CBMR creates, collects, preserves and disseminates information about the black musical experience and promotes understanding of the common roots of the music of the global African Diaspora. Since joining the CBMR as interim executive director in 2007, Hairston O'Connell has overseen development of a strategic and resilience plan, created programming directed towards local audiences and strengthened Chicago-based partnerships and visibility. At New York University she was awarded a Ford Foundation Graduate Fellowship, the Joan R. Heller Dissertation Prize and the Patricia Dunn Lehrman Graduate Fellowship.

Carlos R. Hernandez is a Founder and Executive Director of the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance. Under his leadership, PRAA has become known as a unique organization that promotes diversity while maintaining its mission and core values. Hernandez directs cultural programming, office operations, fundraising, board development and volunteer recruitment for the PRAA. Currently, Carlos is working with his board of directors to establish a Latino cultural center in the Logan Square/Avondale community of Chicago. Hernandez serves as a board member of the Arts and Business Council of Chicago, Ravinia Festival and the Logan Square Neighborhood Association Advisory Committee.

Amanda Klonsky is Girls Progam Director of Free Write Jail Arts and Literacy Program at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center. Previously, she served as a community organizer for the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, establishing the first Jewish-Muslim Community-Building Initiative. Klonsky worked in South Africa with the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation and the Capetown Interfaith Initiative in 2004-2005. She is currently pursuing a master's degree in social work at the University of Chicago. She received a 2009 fellowship from the Chicago Foundation for Education/Fund for Teachers, and was awarded a Human Rights Fellowship from the University of Chicago's Human Rights Program in 2010.

G. Sequane Lawrence is the Center Director for Chicago Youth Center's Elliott Donnelley Center in Bronzeville. He formerly served as the Chief Executive Officer of Youth Service Project, a youth development organization in the Humboldt Park community, where he led the way in providing youth-centered human services, market driven workforce strategies, leadership development, entrepreneurship, economic development and multimedia programs for Latino and African-American youth. Lawrence was also the director of the Mayor's Office of Workforce Development Quantum Opportunities Program, a national mentoring/employment demonstration project.

Kim Ransom is the Inaugural Director of the University of Chicago Collegiate Scholars Program (CSP),a three-year enrichment program committed to preparing promising Chicago Public Schools high school students for success at top-tier colleges and universities. She began her work with young people as a mentor/volunteer for the Elliott Donnelley Youth Center teen council. Ransom is a New York University Women of Color Policy Network Lead the Way Fellow (2010). She is a published author and poet who holds a master's degree in English literature from DePaul University.

Stacy Ratner is the Founder and Executive Director of Open Books, a nonprofit social venture that collects used books and sells them in its River North store to raise money for literacy programs. Since its 2006 beginning in her basement, the organization has grown to encompass 9,000 hours of annual program time, 2,000 students served each year, a network of 3,000 volunteers and more than 350,000 books put towards literacy instead of landfill. In honor of its commitment to furthering the mission of literacy through sustainable social enterprise, Open Books received the Social Enterprise Alliance's Global Innovation Award for 2010.

Eric Rodriguez is executive director of the Latino Union of Chicago, where he collaborates with low-income immigrant workers to collectively improve social, labor and economic conditions. Rodriguez has built alliances throughout the city, garnering public support to open the Albany Park Workers' Center in 2004. While serving as Center coordinator, he helped establish day laborer education programs while organizing north side corner hiring sites to improve social and economic conditions.

Jamiko Rose is the Executive Director of the Organization of the NorthEast (ONE), a community organization that addresses public policies and advances the interests of the most ethnically diverse communities in Chicago. Rose began as a volunteer at ONE, advancing through the ranks to work as an organizer, senior organizer and associate director. Under her leadership the organization has trained hundreds of community leaders, established a transitional jobs program, created and preserved over 1,000 units of affordable housing and created a loan program so that permanent residents can become citizens. Her extensive international experience includes volutneer responsibilities in Paraguay, Israel, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic and Haiti.