Shandra Richardson

Shandra Richardson is the program director for strategic initiatives at The Chicago Community Trust.

In this role, she is responsible for driving and building on the results of a defined set of Trust collaborative and cross-functional initiatives that execute on the Trust’s ultimate strategic goal to close the racial and ethnic wealth gap.

Richardson joined the Trust in 2019 as a program manager on the Growing Household Wealth team, where she managed the Fund for Equitable Business Growth, a funding collaborative to strengthen the small business ecosystem for entrepreneurs of color. She also reshaped the Trust’s housing strategy with the Protecting & Advancing Equitable Homeownership program, which provides funding and collaborative support for organizations and advocates working to close the Black and Latinx homeownership gap.

Before the Trust, Richardson was the managing director of development and communications for Sunshine Enterprises, a local nonprofit dedicated to community-based economic development by equipping and supporting locally based entrepreneurs. She also served as a reporting analyst at the Chicago Housing Authority in the Housing Choice Voucher Program.