President & CEO

United Way of Metro Chicago

As president and chief executive officer of United Way of Metro Chicago, Sean is leading long-term regional transformation by collaborating with donors, community leaders, and residents to ensure our neighbors can meet their basic needs such as food, shelter, and safety and that neighborhoods are built stronger and more equitably through our place-based initiatives such as the Neighborhood Network and United Neighborhoods Equity Fund. Sean believes that neighborhood change happens when community voices are amplified and organized to unlock the positive changes that live in every single one of our communities.

Since joining United Way of Metro Chicago in 2018, Sean has secured the largest corporate gift in organization history, $10 million from BMO for our Austin Neighborhood Network, as well as $25 million from MacKenzie Scott.

Under Sean’s leadership, United Way of Metro Chicago - in partnership with the City of Chicago and Cook County—launched 211 Metro Chicago. United Way has also expanded the Neighborhood Networks from 10 to 18, deepening the organization’s commitment to local, place-based community transformation. In 2020, Sean spearheaded the launch of the Chicago Community COVID-19 Response Fund. This fund was developed in partnership with the City of Chicago and the Chicago Community Trust and raised $35 million, which went directly to 400 nonprofits serving on the frontline in Chicago neighborhoods. Sean was at the forefront of Chicago Connected, where United Way of Metro Chicago worked in partnership with Kids First Chicago, Chicago Public Schools, and other funders to provide four years of free Internet service to 100,000 Chicago families.

Prior to joining the Metro Chicago team, Sean served as the executive director of United Way of Central Carolinas in Charlotte, North Carolina. Before that, he held several positions with United Way Worldwide, including vice president of development. He started his career as a community fellow at United Way of Dane County Wisconsin and also served in the major gifts department at United Way of Metro Chicago.

Sean is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago, Commercial Club of Chicago, and Executives' Club of Chicago. He is also a member of the leadership team for the Corporate Coalition of Chicago and is a CEO Perspectives Fellow and Burnham Fellow. He earned his bachelor's degree in accounting and management from Georgetown University and his MBA from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University.

Though Sean has enjoyed living in a variety of cities throughout the country, he and his wife, Emily, a banker with J.P. Morgan Capital Corp., are delighted to be in Chicago with their two sons. Sean is an avid runner, accomplished grill master, and sports enthusiast.

Executive Fellow

State Policy Network

Debi Ghate is Executive Fellow at the State Policy Network. Ms. Ghate is a trained lawyer, previously practicing civil litigation in Ontario, Canada before moving to California to joining the non-profit sector. She oversaw education and policy programs before serving on leadership teams at two Foundations, including the Charles Koch Foundation. She was previously the Senior Director of Grant Strategy at The Snider Foundation and most recently the Vice President of Strategy and Programs for Philanthropy Roundtable. Ms. Ghate serves on the boards of FAMM and the National Education and Empowerment Coalition. She also serves on the Advisory Boards for the National Liberty Museum and the Center for Equal Opportunity. Ms. Ghate is working on bringing a neighborhood-focused lens to educational and policy solutions.
Ms. Ghate received a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, Biology and French at the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Laws at the University of Calgary.

President/CEO

Wesleyan Impact Partners

Rev. Lisa Greenwood is president and CEO of Wesleyan Impact Partners and Texas Methodist Foundation. Both nonprofit organizations are dedicated to strengthening the church’s mission through investing, lending, philanthropy, and missionally driven innovation. Lisa earned a Master of Divinity from Yale Divinity School and for over thirty years, has been a change-maker within ministry and faith communities, empowering leaders through learning and innovation and driving congregational strength. She is the co-creator and host of the Igniting Imagination podcast and holds a deep conviction that the Holy Spirit is at work in the world and our work is to pay attention and join that good work.

Managing Director, Portfolio Lead

Blue Meridian Partners

Cecilia provides strategic and executional leadership on critical business priorities and leads innovation efforts which will expand Blue Meridian’s work as it evolves. She explores new philanthropic investment opportunities, leads due diligence on potential Blue Meridian investees, and manages relationships with current investees. Cecilia leads Blue Meridian’s Place Matters portfolio.

In 2017, Cecilia was recruited as the Deputy Director of My Brother’s Keeper Alliance (MBKA), Obama Foundation. She co-led the development and launch of the MBK Framework to Affect Systems Change, a foundational standard of excellence outlining a set of principles, indicators, and processes to accelerate progress on complex social conditions for boys and young men of color. By 2018, she certified and onboarded 180 cities, towns, and tribal nations across the country as part of the MBK Network. She also orchestrated a 50-member team in planning and executing MBK Rising! Prior to this, Cecilia spent five years as President and CEO of the Miami Children’s Initiative, a place-based cradle to career strategy in the community of Liberty City in Miami, FL.

She previously held roles with National Academic Educational Partners, a turnaround company, as Acting COO and Strategic Consultant, and served as Executive Director of Breakthrough Miami, an academic enrichment program that uses a student-teaching-students model to ensure that motivated, under-resourced middle-school students have access to excellent high-school opportunities, graduate from high school on time, and attend college.

Cecilia earned a Master of Public Administration from Baruch College, a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Boston College, and she was a National Urban Fellow.

CEO/ SVP Strategic Partnerships

Resilient Healthy People and Places

Hanaa A. Hamdi, Ph.D., is a systems scientist dedicated to advancing health equity and building resilient communities. With over 20 years of experience in research, policy, and practice, she works at the intersection of health and community development finance to transform systems for BIPOC and low-income populations.

Dr. Hamdi is the co-founder and principal of Healthy Resilient People and Places, consulting nonprofits and startups on systems change strategies. Currently, she is a Visiting Scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, focusing on sustainable food systems in Buffalo, NY.

Previously, she led NJ Community Capital’s Health Impact Investment Initiative, integrating health equity into neighborhood revitalization. Her career spans leadership roles in healthcare, medical education, and public service.

Dr. Hamdi earned a joint Ph.D. in Public Health and Environmental Design from Rutgers University and NJIT. She resides in New York City and Oakland, California.

Executive Producer

Neighborhood Economics

Rosa Lee Harden bio 2024
The Rev. Canon Rosa Lee Harden’s vocational life began at her family’s newspaper, The Itawamba County Times, in Fulton, Mississippi. She and her husband, Kevin Jones, were owners of the Mississippi Business Journal for more than a decade.

With a mid-career shift, they moved to California where Rosa Lee became an Episcopal priest and served Holy Innocents Church in San Francisco for ten years during which time its adult membership doubled, and the number of children grew from 2 to more than 50.

In 2008 they launched the global SOCAP conference, described as ‘the conference at the intersection of money and meaning.’ SOCAP19, the last year before the pandemic, brought more than 3,000 people from 60+ countries to San Francisco to work to accelerate the good economy.

In 2014 they, along with Tim Soerens, launched a new event, Neighborhood Economics, which works to bring people from all walks of life together to build an alternative economic imagination that serves everyone in the community. This is the work she focuses on today.

Social Banker

The Learning Tree

De’Amon Harges is the original Roving Listener. He is a social banker. His calling in life is as an artist in a wide variety of ways, including with people. This led to him being hired to do what he was already doing, identifying the gifts, talents, dreams and passions of his neighbors in order to grow community, economy and mutual delight. He continues that work today as a neighbor and as the founder for the Learning Tree, a business he has built with his neighbors that has taken him (and others) around the world to help people remember the ways in which community is present and powerful everywhere - particularly in places where people are pushed to the margins. He serves as a consultant around the country with not-for-profits (public benefit groups), philanthropies, government, and religious organizations. He is a business owner, a husband, a father, a good friend, a neighbor, and so much more. Meet De’Amon Harges!

Treasurer, Board of Directors

Empire Center for Public Policy

Tim Hoefer is a Partner as Steadfast, LLC., which supports the missions of not-for-profit organizations. For more than 10 years, Hoefer was president and CEO of the Empire Center for Public Policy, where he now serves on the board.

Hoefer’s policy work focuses on transparency, government reform, accountability and community building. He wrote several papers on those subjects, testified before local and statewide panels, and authored various op-eds. His numerous interviews were featured in print, radio, and broadcast media.

Hoefer servers on the boards of the Empire Center for Public Policy, Unite NY, and the Saratoga Center for the Family.

Born and raised in Saratoga, he is a native New Yorker. Hoefer has a bachelor’s degree in government & politics from George Mason University and earned his master’s degree in public policy from New England College.

Chief Executive Officer

Cohere

Todd Hornback wants to bring the Life-Changing Power of Community to the world! Whether in local neighborhoods or executive board rooms, Todd engages people in meaningful leadership roles that result in successful and sustainable collaborative enterprises. He is a Partner and Chief Executive Officer at Cohere, a company dedicated to creating special places where people lead richer, more fulfilling, and purposeful lives. Cohere is an innovative market leader providing community developer services and operational management, with an emphasis on authentic resident/stakeholder engagement, innovative collaboration, local partnerships, and community governance/operations.

Partner

The Bridgespan Group

Lauren Hult is a partner in The Bridgespan Group's New York office. Since joining the firm in 2009, Lauren has advised clients in a number of sectors, with a particular focus on child and family services and youth development. Her casework has included advising clients on growth strategy, performance
management, organizational design, and foundation strategy.

Lauren co-leads Bridgespan's area of expertise focused on place-based community change and is deeply committed to community-driven, collaborative models for economic and social mobility. Her expertise includes supporting both nonprofits focused on place-based work as well as philanthropic funders focused on place-based strategy.

Prior to joining Bridgespan, Lauren was a manager at Mercer Oliver Wyman. She specialized in retail and business banking and advised clients on strategic and operational issues. She also has worked at a charter school network, as well as a nonprofit supporting entrepreneurs.

Lauren received an MBA at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, with a certificate in Public Management. Lauren earned her undergraduate degree in Physics from Harvard University.

Assistant Vice President

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

David A. Jackson is an assistant vice president on the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s community and economic development (CED) team with a focus on affordable housing, community economic development finance and community engagement. Prior to joining the Atlanta Fed, Jackson was deputy executive director of the Atlanta BeltLine Partnership. Previously, Jackson served as a visiting adviser with the Atlanta Fed, executive director of the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, and CEO of the Center for Working Families in Atlanta. He has also held senior positions with One Economy Corporation, New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, and Enterprise Community Partners. Jackson holds a BS in architecture from New York Institute of Technology, and an MBA from the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. He is a lecturer at Georgia Institute of Technology and serves on the boards of Mercy Housing, and Food Well Alliance.

Deputy Director & Director of the Institute for Success Planning

EdRedesign Lab, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Tauheedah Jackson serves as the Deputy Director of EdRedesign and the inaugural Director of EdRedesign’s Institute for Success Planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She brings nearly 24 years of experience working in youth development, local government, philanthropy, school districts, and nonprofits to her role. Tauheedah regularly speaks at convenings and serves as an advisor nationally, given her deep expertise in building, scaling, and sustaining local and national cross-sector collaborative systems, including the Full-Service Communities Schools strategy. As Director, Tauheedah has launched the Institute for Success Planning and fueled the adoption of the Success Planning strategy in local communities nationwide. She serves as a Board Member of the Institute for Educational Leadership and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Hartford. Tauheedah earned her bachelor’s degree from Connecticut College in government and secondary education and master’s degree in education policy and management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Principal

Standpoint Consulting

Dr. Adriane Johnson-Williams is an organizational effectiveness consultant and coach. She uses knowledge collected over a career in education, philanthropy, and collective impact along with the experience of being a Black woman in majority white spaces to help senior leaders change their organizations and achieve their results. She is the Founder and Principal of Standpoint Consulting, a firm that delivers curated, results-based support to help businesses and organizations keep the people they serve at the center of their work. The firm focuses on how to lead, plan, align, and collaborate for results.

Dr. AJW, as she is sometimes called, is the author of Not Your Father’s Capitalism: What race equity asks of U.S. business leaders. She is also the host of the Equitable podcast designed to help make equity actionable by interviewing guests from various sectors and disciplines about how they purse equity in their lives and work.

Prior to starting her firm, Johnson-Williams served as Special Assistant for Strategy and Planning at LeMoyne-Owen College. She was a Program Officer at the Pyramid Peak Foundation in Memphis, TN for two years, during which time she designed and launched Whole Child Strategies, a community-led efforts intermediary. WCS is an organization working to amplify the voices of children and families in defining and solving the challenges they are confronting in their disinvested neighborhoods.

Dr. Johnson-Williams was a founding staff member and ultimately became Director of Collaborative Action with Seeding Success, the Shelby County, TN collective impact effort focused on improving cradle to career outcomes. Over the course of those two positions, she took advantage of professional development opportunities with the Annie E. Casey Foundation to sharpen her skills in results-based leadership. She is now an advanced practitioner and program faculty at the Foundation.

Curator

Neighborhood Economics

Kevin Jones is a serial entrepreneur who has been successful eight out of eight times when his wife, Rosa Lee Harden, was his business partner. In 2008 they created SOCAP, the world’s largest impact investing and social enterprise gathering. Early in his career his investigative reporting put a Mississippi sheriff in prison on 53 counts of fraud, he led an unsuccessful malaria project in Mozambique, and was a co-founder of a successful impact investment fund.

For the last decade he has been building innovative financial vehicles such as the Community Equity Fund to provide capital to entrepreneurs who don’t typically get funding.

Kevin and Rosa Lee have a son and a daughter and two grandsons. They all live on their farm which is next to the Swannanoa River and was completely underwater when Hurricane Helene hit Asheville, NC two months ago. But they all are doing well and trying to help underfunded entrepreneurs thrive in the rebuilding.

Kevin and Rosa Lee’s latest venture, with Tim Soerens, is Neighborhood Economics conferences, which convenes and connects the people repairing local economies.

Board Member

Purpose Built Communities

Douglas Jutte, MD, MPH is the founder and past executive director of the Build Healthy Places Network. BHPN is a national organization working across the sectors of health, community development, and finance to drive more impactful, collaborative neighborhood investments that reduce poverty, advance racial equity, and improve health. Dr. Jutte served for a decade as a trustee of Mercy Housing, the nation's largest nonprofit affordable housing developer, and as an advisory committee member for several national healthcare and community development finance organizations, including CommonSpirit Health, Trinity Health, Primary Care Development Corporation, and Enterprise Community Partners. In addition, he was one of three Senior Scientific Editors for the U.S. Surgeon General's 2021 report on Community Health & Economic Opportunity.

Dr. Jutte currently works as a consultant and serves as a Board member for both Purpose Built Communities, a network of community-led revitalization efforts focused simultaneously on housing, education, wellbeing, and economic mobility, and the Center for Health Care Strategies, a policy design and implementation hub focused on improving outcomes for Medicaid enrollees. Prior to founding BHPN, Dr. Jutte worked as a pediatrician for 20 years in community clinics and as a neonatal hospitalist. He was also a professor in the UC Berkeley School of Public Health for 15 years where he published in a number of prominent scientific journals including Pediatrics, Epidemiology, the American Journal of Public Health and Health Affairs. Dr. Jutte received his BA from Cornell University, MD from Harvard Medical School, and MPH from UC Berkeley. He trained in pediatrics at Stanford University and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in population health at UCSF through the RWJF Health & Society Scholars program.