Anti-Racism Transformation Team

The Anti-Racism Transformation Team is a body within Chicago Foundation for Women (CFW) of internal and external stakeholders who will lead the effort to transform CFW into an anti-racist institution. This Team will do that by engaging in continual analysis and essential restructuring of CFW to ensure that the Foundation’s way of being is one that wields a shared power with, and holds itself accountable to, racially oppressed groups to achieve its goal of gender equity.

Meet the Team

Alicia C.L. Bailey

Alicia C.L. Bailey enthusiastically joins the Chicago Foundation for Women’s Anti-Racism Transformation Team, after several years as an inaugural member of The South Side Giving Circle (SSGC).

Racial equity has been a lifelong priority for Alicia, and she is committed to using this new position to advocate on behalf of others, invoke change and inspire action. In addition, she brings over 20 years of content, brand marketing and communications experience through her professional roles.

Beginning her career at “The Oprah Winfrey Show” (TOWS), Alicia often refers to that experience as “bootcamp for life,” with each show serving as a lesson rooted in seeing the humanity in others, the joy in giving back and the importance of striving to live your best life. Her 11-year journey producing content for TOWS laid the foundation for the kind of leader she strives to be. Since then, Alicia has gone on to become the Creative Director for two Emmy-winning shows and now serves dual roles as Director of Marketing Strategy and Head of Production at the National Association of REALTORS®, the world’s largest trade association. There, she is a member of the CEO Advisory Group for DEI, which is committed to leading change in the real estate industry, advancing Fair Housing and ensuring equity for Black homeowners so that they too, can grow generational wealth.

Alicia is honored to help lay the foundation for the Anti-Racism Transformation team, and looks forward to the change that will grow from the seeds planted by this team.

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Allison B. Clark

Allison Clark, (Board Appointment) is an Associate Director for Impact Investments at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and is a member of the Chicago Commitment team. Her work has involved structuring and underwriting investments in areas including housing, community development and the arts. Allison has worked in affordable housing, economic development and commercial real estate for over 25 years in both the public and private sectors. Allison has served on several civic-focused committees, including the Advisory Group for the City of Chicago’s Five-Year Housing Plan and the Illinois Attorney General's task force related to national mortgage settlement stemming from the foreclosure crisis. Passionate about causes related to women and girls, she co-founded EQO37, an online resource focused on promoting gender equality. Allison graduated from Harvard-Radcliffe College and earned a Master of Management degree from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.

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Carly Stacy

Carly Stacy is an organizational strategist, project leader, and fundraiser who has worked in the nonprofit sector for over seven years in areas including literacy and early childhood education. Carly holds a B.S. in Integrated Therapy and currently serves as co-chair for the LBTQ Giving Council of CFW, where she is passionate about supporting community-created and community-sustained efforts to advance gender, racial, and economic equity.

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Cora Márquez

Cora Márquez is the Community Impact Coordinator at The Chicago Community Trust, where she implements grantmaking activities and strategic planning for arts and culture initiatives. She is the co-founder of The Chicago Community Trust’s Committee for Racial and Ethnic Equity, the Communications Lead for the Chicago Latinos in Philanthropy Steering Committee, and a proud member of the Chicago Foundation for Women Young Women’s Giving Council. Over the past year, Cora has dedicated her expertise to combating the impact of the ongoing pandemic as a member of the Chicago Community COVID-19 Response Fund.

Growing up in Minnesota as a daughter to a Mexican immigrant, Cora is deeply committed to social justice and racial equity. She is honored to be a member of the Anti-Racism Transformation Team for Chicago Foundation for Women. As a member of the transformation team, Cora hopes to bring her full self and all her identities as well as years of experience in the nonprofit world and philanthropy.

Cora received her Bachelor of Arts from Depaul University in Anthropology and Community Service.

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Dara M. Gray Basley

Dara M. Gray Basley is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) and currently serves as the Health Equity Manager at Access Community Health Network (ACCESS) in Chicago, Illinois. Dara provides leadership in integrating both Trauma Informed Care and Social Determinants of Health into the organizational culture of one of the largest Federally Qualified Health Centers in the Chicagoland area.

In addition, Dara is a Chair for ACCESS’ Racial Justice & Health Equity StrategiCare Committee, dedicated to providing a safe space for the cultivation of knowledge, meaningful dialogue, and the actions required to tackle issues of racism and health equity within and beyond the walls of ACCESS. Prior to this position Dara led a team of Maternal & Child Health (MCH) High Risk Case Managers and Breastfeeding Counselor as the MCH Program Manager for the Westside Healthy Start program; a federally funded infant mortality initiative.

Dara has worked in the field of public health, specifically working to reduce health disparities for over 10 years. She received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from The University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, and earned her master’s in social work from The University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration (SSA) as a Family Support Fellow.

Outside of the office, Dara served as a Co-Chair for the Illinois Department of Public Health COINN Pre/Interconception Care Committee and currently serves as the Chair for the Programs & Best Practices committee for the Illinois Taskforce on Infant and Maternal Mortality Among African Americans.

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Erica Rangel

Erica Rangel is the Development Director at Enlace Chicago. Since 2012, Erica has played a number of roles at Enlace. In her current role, she oversees fundraising and marketing strategy for the organization. As Institutional Giving Manager, she managed Enlace’s diverse and extensive grants portfolio and, as the Executive Assistant, she ensured efficiency and consistency in operations and administration across the organization.

While she was Lead Community Organizer, she worked closely with staff to formalize and facilitate the Enlace Leadership Academy; this led to over 150 leaders participating during that time. She also convened a local network focused on increasing access to basic needs. Prior to coming to Enlace, she was a Community Relations Coordinator at the Greater Chicago Food Depository, where she managed partnerships with over 125 organizations in predominantly Latinx communities.

She was also a regular volunteer with the Center for Economic Progress for over 10 years, where she provided free assistance in filing tax returns in North Lawndale and Pilsen. She is currently a board member of The Learning Center, an adult education provider in North Lawndale. In all of her roles, she has been instrumental in launching and sustaining new initiatives.

She graduated with an Associate of Science from Moraine Valley and a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from University of Illinois at Chicago. Erica was born and raised in Little Village and currently lives there with her son.

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Madra Guinn-Jones

Madra Guinn-Jones is a public health professional dedicated to maternal child health. She has worked at public, private, and nonprofit health care organizations. She has managed an intensive home visitation and family support program and has been a practice and operations manager for OB/GYN practices. She has worked at organizations that develop policy, provide advocacy and education, and help ensure access to vital resources needed to improve maternal and child health. She is committed to ameliorating the health inequities that contribute to health disparities and the excess disease burden experienced by communities of color. She is currently the Senior Director, Equity Initiatives at the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Her commitment to social justice and passion for mothers, children, and youth in marginalized communities transcend her profession and extend to her community. She is a proud Board member of New Moms and a Chicago Scholars mentor. She has completed training as a racial healing practitioner with Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation – Chicago. She is an alumnae of the Chicago Foundation for Women (CFW) Willie’s Warriors Leadership Initiative and a member of the CFW Women of Color United Giving Council.

She earned her Bachelor of Science in Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Master of Public Health from Emory University.

She is married and has one son. When she isn’t busy trying to do good in the world, she enjoys spending time with her dog, cooking, reading, listening to music and podcasts, and traveling.

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Marguerite H. Griffin

Marguerite H. Griffin is a Senior Vice President at Northern Trust. As Director of Philanthropic Advisory Services, Marguerite is responsible for the delivery and growth of Northern Trust’s philanthropic advisory services to Wealth Management clients. She specialized in administering charitable trusts and private foundations and facilitating family philanthropy retreats. She advises clients regarding impact investing, strategic philanthropy, international philanthropy, family succession planning, and board development, and governance and risk management for nonprofit organizations. Marguerite is an active volunteer, advisor, and board member with several charitable and cultural institutions, including the Chicago Foundation for Women, The Chicago Community Trust, the Shriver Center on Poverty Law, The Cleveland Avenue Foundation for Education (The CAFE), and WTTW/WFMT. She is certified as an English language instructor for non-native speakers. She is a Life-cycle Celebrant, a former triathlete, and yoga instructor.

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Nancy Juda

Nancy Juda is a community volunteer, activist, and philanthropist. Currently, she is a board member of Friends of the Parks in Chicago and the Mastery Foundation, an international organization based in San Francisco. She is an active former board member of the Chicago Foundation for Women and a proud member of the CFW Alumnae Council and Advocacy Committee. Nancy is the founding steward of the Lakeview Community Garden at Diversey and of the Green Initiative, a committee of residents in the high-rise community where she lives that is dedicated to environmental sustainability.

Previously, she worked at Landmark Education, holding several jobs at the Chicago center, including Center Manager. She also taught art to children and adults in several settings, and created and ran the adult art program at the East Rogers Park Jewish Community Center.

Nancy received a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Arts at Kirkland College, an innovative women’s school that was in upstate New York. She also studied painting and printmaking at The Rhode Island School of Design and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She worked professionally as a contemporary stained glass artist for over fifteen years.

Nancy lives in Chicago with her husband Jens Brasch, an artist and retired high school art teacher. Her adult stepdaughter Alise now lives in Vermont.

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Saba Bando

Saba Bando is a certified life and leadership coach. Her passion for diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging is informed by her experience as the daughter of immigrants from Pakistan, and as the mother of a young man living with a physical disability. Saba works with clients on their challenges and supports them in creating what they want in their personal and professional lives. Through 30 years of study of several modalities including spirituality, eastern philosophy, and personal development, Saba guides her clients to new perspectives and new possibilities they may have been unaware of. As a result, they experience greater peace of mind, clarity, and joy at a transformational level, thus allowing them to access their inherent emotional and mental wellbeing. Saba resides in Downers Grove with her husband and son.

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Venita Griffin

Venita possesses 15+ years of experience leading successful advocacy, digital, and multicultural marketing campaigns. She currently serves as the digital campaigner for a national nonprofit that identifies and amplifies the organizing power and leadership of Black, Indigenous, People of Color.

In addition to the duties of her full-time role, Venita worked to organize millions of women of color voters during the 2020 election cycle, mobilized low-income workers to call for passage of the HEROES Act, provided digital support in an attempt to defeat the passage of Amendment One in her home state of Louisiana, and served as the lead digital consultant on a national COVID relief project which, among other victories, worked to win a mask mandate in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

She is a 2021-2022 Stanford University Center for Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity practitioner fellow, a member of the Chicago Foundation for Women’s South Side Giving Circle, and a co-chair of the foundation's Women of Color United Giving Council. She also serves as the Chicago Co-Director for ChickTech, a national nonprofit that engages women of all ages in the technology industry.

A New Orleans native, Venita lives in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood.

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Whitney Wade

Whitney joined Chicago Foundation for Women in June 2021 in the role of Program Officer, Women’s Economic Security. She most recently managed the McCormick Foundation's grantmaking with its professional sports team partners (Chicago Bulls, Blackhawks, Cubs, and White Sox) and A Better Chicago making investments primarily in education, workforce development, and career pathways, and health and wellness. Before transitioning to a program officer role, she was hired as the first Talent Acquisition Specialist for the McCormick Foundation and Cantigny Park. Prior to joining the McCormick Foundation, she spent more than three years at Arabella Advisors, a philanthropy consulting firm, managing talent acquisition, diversity, equity, and inclusion. Whitney began her career in nonprofit fundraising and development.

She holds a Master of Social Work from Washington University’s Brown School and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and African and African American Studies, also from Washington University in St. Louis. Whitney is also a new advisory board member at Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy (EPIP) and a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. She is a native Chicagoan and lives in South Shore with her wife. Whitney is an inaugural member and former co-chair of the South Side Giving Circle at CFW and was a member of the Women United Giving Council for three years.

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Christina Cordova-Herrera

Christina Córdova-Herrera (she/her/ella) is a born and raised Chicagoan, daughter of Mexican immigrants, mother, and Army wife. She is a passionate advocate for issues affecting the Latino, immigrant, veteran, and mental health communities.

As the Public Relations Director for Purple Group, she leads the public relations efforts for various clients in the transportation, health, and public services sectors.

Before joining Purple Group, Christina served as the Director of Communications for Chicago Foundation for Women and led the development and execution of its communications, media, marketing, public relations, digital strategy, events management, and community outreach. Since 2021 she has served as a member of the Foundation’s Anti-Racism Transformation Team.

Christina’s prior experience includes managing communications, marketing, and community outreach efforts as the Director of Marketing and Communications for Benefit Chicago, an award-winning place-based impacting investing fund. She also managed website content, social media, and Spanish media relations for Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago as the Communications Manager for Online and Spanish Media.

Christina received her Bachelor of Arts from Columbia College Chicago in Marketing Communications and her Master of Arts in Mass Communication from the University of Florida focused on Public Relations.

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Ilda Lagunas

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Eli Marsh

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Anti-Racism Transformation Team

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