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Meet the 2023 Cohort

CFW is proud to announce the 2023 Willie’s Warriors Leadership Initiative cohort. The 21 Warriors represent a cross-section of Black women leaders from diverse backgrounds, sectors, and industries.

Over eight months, the Warriors will gain a better sense of themselves as leaders and develop skills related to systems change, economic empowerment, communications, and strategic alliances, while building a close-knit support network with their fellow Warriors.

Christina Armstrong

Program Director of Youth Mentorship & Compliance

Christina Armstrong

Christina Armstrong has facilitated, developed, and managed transformative programs, events and content for children, youth and adults for close to twenty years. She has engaged hundreds of individuals in socio-emotional learning, civic engagement, restorative practices, the arts, health and wellness, college and career readiness, tutoring and mentoring.

Christina is currently the Program Director of Mentorship & Compliance at Public Allies Chicago, a national movement committed to advancing social justice and equity by engaging and activating diverse leaders. She coaches and creates training for developing leaders and oversees all aspects of the Public Allies Youth Mentoring Program.

Additionally, as a Circle Keeper and Restorative Justice Practitioner, Christina holds spaces for community building, dialogue, conflict transformation and healing. Christina has provided consulting to schools and nonprofits on implementing restorative practices and restorative justice.

With a passion for racial and gender justice, she has participated in Saving Our Lives, Hear Our Truths (SOLHOT), a space to celebrate Black girlhood, and Black Girl Genius Week. She co-wrote two chapters in the anthology, Wish to Live: The Hip-hop Feminist Pedagogy Reader. Through BYP100, she engaged with #sayhername, an organizing campaign to address institutional violence against Black cis and trans women and girls.

Alongside her mother, Dr. Judith Armstrong, Christina is helping to develop innovative differentiated storybooks and curricula at Grow-Into Books, Inc. (Her mother has also been actively involved in Rainbow PUSH Excel program and assisted Rev. Willie Barrow with the Rainbow PUSH Excel Parade.)

Christina obtained a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Sociology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a master’s degree in Educational Policy and Management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Christina was raised and currently resides on the Southside of Chicago. She enjoys composing music and performing as a vocalist and pianist.

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Pamela Bozeman

Chief Operating Officer, New Moms

Pamela Bozeman

Pamela Bozeman joined New Moms as Chief Operating Officer in June 2018. She came to New Moms with a passion for work in poverty alleviation, restorative justice, and financial literacy. Her primary responsibilities have included oversight of Human Resources, Bright Endeavors Social Enterprise, Operations and DEI. Bozeman has more than 25 years of leadership experience in nonprofit management, for-profit consulting, and higher education.

Prior to joining New Moms Bozeman served as the Senior Director of North Park University's Career Development and Internships Office. She also served as the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Strategic Initiatives Officer for YWCA Metropolitan Chicago, where her commitment to DEI flourished under the YWCA’s mission to empower women and eradicate racism. Bozeman held several other leadership positions including Blue Gargoyle Executive Director, and Senior Program Director for the Gary Comer Youth Center. In each of these roles Bozeman was responsible for developing and/or executing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice (DE)I policies and practices. She worked to ensure each institution’s core values promoted equitable access and restorative practices for students and community.

Two defining roles in her career included a position as the Volunteer Coordinator and Chicago Director for Senator Barack Obama, and her position as Associate Dean of Students and Director of the Community Service Center for the University of Chicago. Both roles leveraged on real-time data analysis to inform, engage, and measure real community impact.

Her other key project management roles included a Program Director position with the Women’s Self Employment Project in Chicago, and Executive Assistant at the Institute for Social and Economic Development in Iowa City, Iowa. She received her BA in Corporate Communications and a Master’s in Public Administration, both from Northern Illinois University. Bozeman is a Chicago south side native, and proud mom of a bright and compassionate teenage son.

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Crystal Braboy

Chief People, Equity, and Culture Officer, Planned Parenthood of Illinois

Crystal Braboy

Crystal Rénae Braboy is an inspired HR professional, with nearly fifteen years of hands-on knowledge and expertise in employee relations, performance management, leadership training and development, and people operations and strategies. With a never-ending dedication to people and progress, she prides herself on being a leader who fundamentally respects the human experience, and finds creative ways to align individuals’ innate gifts with an organization’s key needs. Crystal earned her Master of Arts degree in Communications from DePaul University in 2010 and graduated summa cum laude; her B.A. is in English Literature.

She is an HRCI-designated Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) as well as SHRM-SCP certified. Crystal is a Certified Diversity Professional (CDP), credentialed through National Diversity Council’s DiversityFIRST program. Crystal is also a proud, certified TRHT Racial Healing Practitioner. Interestingly, Crystal worked for years as a hip-hop journalist and created some of her most important work in that space for VIBE Magazine. These days, Crystal busies herself serving as a proud mentor to several first-generation college-bound seniors from underserved communities through her work with Chicago Scholars, and has dedicated her life to advocating for equity, access, and opportunity in both the education and healthcare realms.

Crystal currently serves as Planned Parenthood of Illinois' Chief People, Equity, and Culture Officer. As the agency’s first Black woman to lead these functions, Crystal leads PPIL’s efforts toward cultivating and fostering an inspiring work culture that is driven by the leveraging of similarities and differences, and strengthened through the transformative pursuit of eliminating inequities. In this age of ever-evolving workplace practices and norms, Crystal is focused on ensuring that PPIL is well-prepared to respond to changing workforce dynamics, and that its business decisions are well-aligned with the social outcomes that the 100-year-old organization strives to create.

In 2019, Crystal was recognized with a Power 50 Award by the National Diversity Council at the Illinois Women’s Conference, an honor extended to women who are shaping the future of their industries. In 2020, Crystal was honored to be named on Crain’s Chicago Business’s Notable LGBTQ Executives + Businesses Championing Diversity & Inclusion List, and was also named as one of DiversityMBA’s Top 100 Under 50 Emerging and Executive Leaders. Most recently, Crystal was named as one of the Chicago Defender’s 2021 Women of Excellence.

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Danielle Brown

Police Officer, Chicago Police Department

Danielle Brown

Born in Harvey, IL and Raised on the Southside of Chicago. Danielle Brown attended Gwendolyn Brooks College. Preparatory Academy in Roseland. She later obtained a Bachelors of Science Degree in Accounting from Chicago State University, as well as a Master’s of Science Degree in Public Safety Administration from Calumet College of St. Joseph. She is currently pursuing a Doctoral Degree in Educational Leadership at DePaul University.

Danielle Brown is a second generation officer following in the footsteps of her mother, father, and brother. She has been a Chicago police officer for 10 years currently working as a Youth and Wellness Liaison Officer for over 6 communities located on the Westside of Chicago. She was previously a Youth Liaison Officer on the Southside of Chicago in the Roseland, Pullman, and Altgeld Garden areas.

Officer Brown has worked with multiple organizations and city agencies on the Southside and  Westside of Chicago to provide youth valuable information and resources to help youth  navigate through life. She has been an ambassador for the Chicago Police Department’s  employment recruitment campaign and instructed one hundred citywide School Resource  Officers on Restorative Practices utilizing her experience as a restorative justice practitioner.  She has, for an example, organized a collaboration with Strides for Peace Organization, Chicago  police department Youth District Advisory Council, Youth Explorers, and Police to build  relationships and have conversations about the impact of gun violence & participate in a 5k  race against gun violence.

She is a member of the Chicago Association of Women in Law Enforcement Organization, and  the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement. She previously held the position of Vice  President of DePaul University’s Education Doctoral Student Association-Board of Directors. She  is a recipient of the Purple with a Passion Civic Engagement Award in Celebration of Women of  Distinction. She has also participated in the Chicago African American in Philanthropy “Trust  Black Women” mentorship program.

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Tasha Brown

Midwest Director, Small Business Majority

Tasha Brown

Tasha directs Small Business Majority's outreach, education, and policy efforts in the Midwest region from our Chicago office where she focuses on enhancing financial security for small business owners, their employees, and their families.

Tasha has a breadth of experience across multiple industries and disciplines including government, education, and entrepreneurship. Before joining Small Business Majority, Tasha worked with more than 300 entrepreneurs to help them launch or grow their businesses. She led the Illinois Small Business Development Center at the South Suburban location of the Women’s Business Development Center. Tasha was the 2020 recipient of the Economic Development Award from the South Suburban Small Business Association. She has spoken frequently with the media to share her insights on the state of Black-owned businesses in the South suburban area of Chicago.

Tasha is a faith-based community leader who has, among other achievements, leveraged her  tenure to advance equity in ministry. Tasha has offered mentoring and leadership development  assistance to seminarians, pastors, and faith leaders; facilitated small group discussions around  race and religion; and organized Urban Ministries’ largest African and African American  Denominational Leaders’ Summit. Her doctoral work on the need for supportive communities  for women in ministry culminated in the publication of her article “Why the Non-Acceptance of  Female Clergy is a Violent Act by the Church” by the African American Lectionary Online.

Tasha is a published author and released, Seller of Purple: A Christian Woman’s Guide to Entrepreneurship in December 2020. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Human Resource Development, a Master of Divinity, and a Doctor of Ministry in Pastoral and Spiritual Care.

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Karli Butler

Director of Community Leadership, Evanston Community Foundation

Karli Butler

When it comes to adversity, some people are just unyielding. Karli Butler has faced some serious trials, but in each step, remains unbreakable. Turning her trauma into triumph, she’s a survivor who by sharing her story and using it for good, does more than just show the world her strength.

In March 2006, she was the target of a vicious attack made in retaliation against her then boyfriend. The violent beating escalated to kidnapping, but Karli was able to escape from the trunk of her car while it was in motion. In May, another attack occurred—same motive, but different attackers— and this attack left much different scarring. Karli’s attackers held her at gunpoint and poured acid over her body causing her to spend the next six and half weeks in the Intensive Care Burn Unit. She endured over a dozen surgeries, but the emotional effects of her attacks ran much deeper than the external scarring. Due to a lack of sufficient evidence, only one of her five attackers were ever brought to justice, leaving Karli with a totally different wound.

Instead of letting trials defeat her, Karli made an important decision—to speak up. And as an expert in the art of communication, she is well-equipped to do so. Karli is a proud alumna of DePaul University, and she holds not only a Bachelor of Arts in Communication, but also a Master of Arts in Organizational and Multicultural Communication, incorporating that acumen when speaking to her different audiences. In addition to her academic degrees, she is a trained circle keeper with Restorative Justice Evanston and the Evanston Police Department.

Since making that extremely brave decision, she’s delivered dozens of speeches and presentations, including a TEDx Talk, for groups and organizations such as Kraft Heinz, Valparaiso University, Loyola University Medical Center, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, and even her alma mater, DePaul University. These discussion-based lectures pertain to self-esteem, self-respect, forgiveness, and being a survivor of violence. She provides tips on overcoming trauma and life’s obstacles, but most importantly, she demonstrates how self-esteem comes from within and its ability to empower and heal the body and mind.

Karli’s reach doesn’t end with only those she physically meets and encourages. To prevent others from enduring similar trials, she worked to change legislation that could help a countless number of people in her home state and played a key role in the passing of Illinois House Bill 2193—a bill that requires anyone buying commercial-grade hydrochloric or sulfuric acid to show photo identification and have their data entered into a state database.

Karli walks in her purpose daily by being a community connector. She currently serves as Director of Community Leadership at the Evanston Community Foundation. And when she's not Googling information for her inquisitive son, Zailen, you can find her researching her next Covid-safe foodie experience . . . or ironing her superwoman cape.

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Bianca Cotton

Associate Director, Public Allies Chicago

Bianca Cotton

Bianca N. Cotton is a Chicago native and Chicago Public Schools graduate with a heart to serve people, develop leaders, and see communities get the resources they need to succeed. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Sociology from Illinois Wesleyan University and a Master’s Degree from DePaul University with a concentration in Management and Leadership Consulting in the Nonprofit and Corporate Sectors. With more than a decade of nonprofit management and social justice experience, seeking to foster a just and equitable society, Bianca is adept at serving youth, families, and communities using her exceptional toolkit acquired through her experience in project management and human development.

Bianca has honed her craft as an emotionally intelligent practitioner who is skilled at establishing and sustaining inner-office and external relationships with key stakeholders in most positions she has held. Moreover, she exemplifies resilient leadership while also demonstrating a complementary, team-centered disposition. During her tenure at United Way of Metropolitan Chicago leading an AmeriCorps Program, she developed a training and learning curriculum to equip leaders from diverse backgrounds with practical knowledge and tools to pursue a career in nonprofit. She now serves as the Associate Director of Public Allies Chicago - a social just organization of which she is an alumna - working to help fulfill its commitment to changing the landscape of leadership by recruiting and training talented emerging leaders from marginalized communities.

Bianca assists organizations in advancing their missions by providing strategic direction for diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, while enhancing employee engagement through employee resource groups and professional development opportunities. As a trained W. K. Kellogg Racial Healing Practitioner, Bianca curates space for people with diverse backgrounds to learn, be transformed, and sharpen their innate abilities to actualize their purpose and add value to each space they enter.

She is a 5x author, podcast host and founder of Behind the Confident Smile – a movement where women and girls are inspired to walk in love, live in hope, and be healed from past hurts. Bianca resides in Chicago with her husband and children. She enjoys writing, public speaking, walking, and making plans to change the world for the better!

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Courtney Everette

Courtney Everette

Development Specialist, O'Koon Psychology Group

Courtney

Courtney is a CFW vet, having completed the Board Member Bootcamp and becoming a member of the SSGC. She currently serves as the chair of the development committee and a member of the board of directors for the Center for Independent Futures. Professionally, Courtney works as a specialist in intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and focuses on providing accurate diagnostic assessment and connection to community and school support. Most importantly she is a mother to two miracle babies, and a storyteller who shares her journey of chronic illness to help normalize the experiences of those with invisible disabilities. Courtney can be found on the southside with her husband enjoying good food, reading on her back porch, and plotting on how to make her 40s her most rewarding decade yet.

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Anjylla Y. Foster

Research and Project Manager, Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago

Anjylla Y. Foster

Dr. Anjylla Y. Foster is a Midwest native raised in Chicago but a citizen of the world. She is a two-time graduate of the University of Cincinnati where she obtained a Bachelor of Business Administration in two concentrations, Marketing and International Business; and, her Masters of Arts in Communication. Anjylla has a strong love of learning as noted by certificates earned from the University of Pennsylvania in Positive Psychology (2020); Northwestern University in Nonprofit Management (2020), and, from the University of South Florida in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (2021). At 30 years of age, Anjylla completed her doctoral degree in Organization Development from Benedictine University. Her research examined “The Transcendent Workplace Experience: An Exploratory Study Enabling Organizations to Cultivate an Engaged, Thriving and Flourishing Workforce.” Her continued research focuses on strategies for organizations to enable positive behaviors and experiences in the workplace that lead associates to stronger contributions while exponentially happier.

She has spent most of her nonprofit management career leading operations with diverse teams for cultural institutions and civic spaces, currently with the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago where she serves as lead researcher and project manager for a National Science Foundation sponsored study. She prides herself on being a human resource with expertise that includes job training, coaching, mentoring, professional development, conflict management, and culture curation.

Dr. Foster served Zeta Phi Beta Sorority as the International Vice President responsible for collegiate member development and currently serves as Co-Director of Sorority Life and Culture. She also serves on the Associate Board for the Chicago organization, New Moms, as Membership Chair. In her spare time, she enjoys listening to live music, crafting, reading, and traveling.

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Porshé Gardner

Senior Administrator, A Long Walk Home

Porshe Gardner

Porshé Garner is a community organizer, spiritualist, healer, and theorist who, for the past 13 years, has organized alongside Black girls and women to create spaces of possibilities and freedom. She received her Ph.D. in educational policy studies with a graduate minor in gender and women’s studies from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Porshe is interested in the utility of spirituality as a site/sight of liberation and future making in the present specifically in Black girlhood spaces.

Her dissertation, "Present-day prophets: Defining Black girlhood spirituality in Saving Our Lives Our Truths (SOLHOT)," offered a definition of Black girlhood spirituality that demonstrated the necessity of studying spirituality as a site of inquiry into the knowledge production and experiences of Black girls in community with Black women. From this work she earned the 2019 American Educational Research Association, Arts-Based Educational Research Outstanding Dissertation Award. She continues to ruminate on the utility of spirituality through her blog, holyblackgirl.blogspot.com, by making use of and critiquing the personal, political, pop culture, and everything in between.

In addition to her organizing work, Porshé worked in student affairs for 10 years, where she advised and directed students in their matriculation. Further, she was previously the executive director of a non-profit independent film organization in central Illinois. Currently, she is the senior administrator at A Long Walk Home where she manages organizational programs and day to day operations as well as supports strategic planning and implementation.

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Darice Goodwin

Associate Clerk of the Criminal Bureau, Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County

Darice Goodwin

I always get nervous when asked to write a biography, partly because I don’t know what to say and partly because I don’t know what the other person is looking for. But if I am being honest, my nervousness is mostly because as a woman in her 40’s I am constantly learning about the ever evolving me.

With that being said and in a really high overview, I am a wife, married for 18 years to my college sweetheart, a mom of 3 busy girls, ages 14, 12, and 10. I am a family mediator and often referee. I am a student, having temporarily lost my mind and deciding to go back to school after a 25 year hiatus. I am Chicago stepper, an orator (being the granddaughter of a preacher), a government administrator and last but certainly not least, I am stage 2 breast cancer survivor.

To tell you who I am I will expound on the latter. I was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 38, after being 10 years married and having 3 daughters who at the time were 5, 3, and 1. I went through 16 rounds of chemo, 33 radiation treatments and 2 surgeries in one day where they removed both my breasts and my ovaries. The word for myself while going through my treatment plan? RESILIENCE. I was often told that I didn’t resemble what I was going through, I likened it to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego of the bible; I went through the fire and didn’t even smell like smoke. Once treatment was over and life began anew, my word for myself then? DETERMINATION. I came out on the other side determined to live, determined to survive and determined to thrive. For myself, for my children and for my friends and family.

I am doing that now. And while the road isn’t always easy or smooth it is definitely worth it. I understand and believe that movement is life. We can’t become and or remain stagnant, we have to go, expand, explore and grow. I know better than most that life is short, I want to do good, letting my light shine, I want to be great as God has called me to be and I want to exude excellence every day of my life making my Granny (in heaven) proud. Thank you for your time.

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Tasasha Henderson

Special Assistant to the President, Grand Victoria Foundation

Tasasha Henderson

Tasasha Henderson is currently Special Assistant to the President at Grand Victoria Foundation, where she provides high-level executive support and management to advance the Foundation’s mission.


She has experience in fundraising, program development, and communications. Prior to joining Grand Victoria Foundation, she spent 7 seven years as a grants manager, raising over $2.2 million for various social service organizations in Chicago. She has also worked as a freelance writer, with a focus on criminalized survivors of violence, policing, and racial and gender justice. She has written for Truthout, Salon, BK Magazine, and Feminist Wire.

Tasasha is passionate about creating a different world that is rooted in the values of justice, liberation, humanity, and love. She has worked to contribute to creating this new world as a long-time member of Love & Protect, a grassroots collective that supports women and gender nonconforming survivors of interpersonal violence who are facing criminalization. She is also a co-chair of the Racial Equity & Social Justice committee of Chicago Women in Philanthropy and co-chair of the Women of Color United Giving Circle at Chicago Foundation for Women.

Tasasha has a Master of Science degree in Public Service Management from DePaul University and Bachelor of Science degree in Radio/TV/Film from Indiana State University.

 

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Saroyan Hill

Senior Manager, Operations, Discover Financial Services

Saroyan Hill

Saroyan is an experienced leader who strongly believes in using her platform and experience to drive lasting and meaningful change. Throughout her nearly 15 years with Discover, she has led operations and cross-functional teams, chaired multiple employee resource groups, helped create a variety of development programs, and worked with several community-based organizations across the country. She has a proven track record of leading and developing high-performing teams. In addition to that, she has participated in several development and certification programs, including McKinsey’s Black Management Accelerator and is also a graduate of Arizona State University.

In her current role, she leads the day-to-day Customer Service and Engagement operations of Discover’s Chatham Customer Care Center on the South side of Chicago. By the end of 2024, the center will employ approximately 1,000 people, mostly within a five-mile radius of the Center. To date, the center has been performing at an industry-leading level, and has been nothing short of transformational. The work that she does in Chatham will help serve as a model for how the company will operate in the future. In addition to that, serve as a springboard for further economic development in the area.

While an Ohio native, Saroyan is highly energized by the work she gets to do in Chicago and is looking forward to planting her roots in the city’s South Side. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, photography, and attending concerts.

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Lola Jenkins

Chief Executive Officer, Chicago Family Partnership

Lola Jenkins

Lola Jenkins gets things done. As Project Manager and Community Engagement strategist for BakerDukes, Lola is instrumental in the planning and implementation of programming and shifting organizational culture from compliance to engagement. Ms. Lola Jenkins came of age on the West side of Chicago.

Throughout her life Lola has been deeply involved in service activities with organizations such as Family Focus Lawndale, The Greater Chicago Food Depository, YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago, ETA Creative Arts Foundation, and The Links, Inc., resulting in a demonstration for lofty standards of achievement. Characteristic of her foresight concerning her early desire for a career in social service, she earned a bachelor’s degree in political science, with a minor in sociology from Spelman College. After returning to Chicago from Atlanta, Lola began her career in community service and advocacy as a case manager and has held several positions within the human service arena.

As Vice President of Operations for her family run nonprofit, Westside Association for Community Action, Lola is credited with streamlining business processes to increase agency efficiency. Her meticulous approach has proven beneficial to maintaining organizational viability. She attributed this success to her studies at Lewis University where she received a Master’s in Business Administration.

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Wanjiku Kamuyu-Anderson

Chaplain, Advocate Christ Medical Center

Wanjiku Kamuyu-Anderson

Chaplain Wanjiku Kamuyu-Anderson was born in Nairobi, Kenya. At the age of 8, she and her family moved to Ypsilanti, Michigan where she was raised. Chaplain Wanjiku is a graduate of Clark Atlanta University where she got her Bachelor of Arts in Mass Media Communications concentration in Public Relations.

In 2012 she accepted her call to ministry. Chaplain Wanjiku is a proud graduate of Gammon Theological Seminary at The Interdenominational Theological Center where she received her Master of Divinity. Currently, she is working on her second Masters in Pastoral Care and Counseling concentration in Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care at Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary where she is graduating in the Spring of 2023.

Her ministry context is intersecting faith, theology, and psychology from a Pastoral Care context. Her focus is helping Black women and Black girls reimage how therapy and theology can be a tool of liberation, empowerment, and wholeness. Her work is also to help Black women and Black girls explore the communal, intercultural, and systematic context of care practices and the link between justice and pastoral care.

Chaplain Wanjiku considers herself a millennial Womanist Theologian. As a Black millennial woman of faith, she seeks to offer a counter narrative that tells the stories of Black millennials who are concerned about faith and justice. She is a staff Chaplain at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, IL. She is also a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Sorority Incorporated.

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Kourtnee Palamore

Manager of Family Support Programs, City of Chicago: Department of Family & Support Services

Kourtnee Palamore

Kourtnee Palamore is an innovative community investment expert and native Chicagoan. With over 18 years of experience in community engagement, Kourtnee has made a positive impact in the lives of residents of Chicago’s most underserved communities. Kourtnee’s professional experience include positions with the WNBA Chicago Sky, After School Matters, and the Chicago Park District. In those roles, she gained invaluable experience in sales, quality program development, and community engagement.

Currently, she is the Manager of Family & Support programs for the Department of Family and Support Services with the City of Chicago. In this role, she oversees special programs that impact Chicago’s most vulnerable population. Kourtnee attributes her success in community investments to a deep passion for helping others and a strong desire to create strategies that leverage resources and provide the greatest impact. One of her favorite community impact projects includes a partnership with After School Matters and Garrett’s Popcorn. Click here to see a short video about that project. Kourtnee has been a member of the Windy City Chapter of Jack and Jill of America, Inc. since 2009. She currently serves as the Lead Teen Advisor for the chapter. In this role, she serves on the Executive Committee and leads the Teen Leadership Club for teens age 13-18 years old.

In her spare time, Kourtnee is a volunteer coach for the Girls Flag Football team at Simeon High School. She also enjoys spending quality time with her son, who is a graduating senior Class of 2023.

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Dedra D. Ries, MPH

Director, Community Engagement and Health Equity, University of Illinois Cancer Center

Dedra D. Ries, MPH

I have over 20 years of experience in public health. In August of 2022, I began my current role as Director of the Office of Community Engagement and Health Equity at the University of Illinois Cancer Center (UICC). My goal is to assure that UICC is engaging with community-based organizations and residents to prevent disparities in cancer outcomes. I have a passion for authentically engaging communities to build strong and lasting relationships. I bring experiences working at the local, state, and national level and my lived experience growing up on the southside of Chicago. In my current role, I am part of a small number of African Americans in a leadership role.

Prior to my current position, I worked at the Cook County Department of Public Health for 12 years. In that role, I learned about the importance of not just having a seat at the table, but also having a voice, being able to express the needs of those who historically have not been heard. I experienced in real time the response to the COVID-19 epidemic. It is in these emergencies that we find out the importance of having people like myself involved who can elevate the needs of those that are most vulnerable. I also saw how often decisions were made that would benefit the “haves” and leaving the “have nots” to figure things out for themselves. As I reflect on this time, it further enlightened for me the need to have strong trusted community-based organizations that can meet the needs of the community.

Connecting with women through the Willie Warriors cohort will provide an opportunity to share what I have learned in my career as well as learn from other black women who have a similar journey. I think that having a network of women to share and learn from would be great for my current and future career goals.

Outside of my professional roles I am a wife, mother of four teens and sister. In my spare time, I enjoy reading, chess, and I am a tea enthusiast.

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Dr. Femi Skanes

CEO/Lead Consultant, Leadership EDGE, LLC

Dr. Femi Skanes

Dr. Femi Skanes is a passionate leader who believes that all students should have access to a quality and equitable education. Dr. Skanes is the founder of Leadership EDGE, LLC. Leadership EDGE, LLC believes that leadership is a lifestyle, equity is essential, and parenting is the promise. Prior to launching Leadership EDGE, Dr. Skanes served in many capacities including classroom teacher, literacy coach, reading department chair, assistant principal, and principal.

After serving as a high school principal for ten years, Dr. Skanes is well known for her commitment to revitalizing schools by fostering positive community relationships. She finds joy in presenting and delivery keynote addresses to encourage, empower, and promote academic success and racial equity. Under her leadership, Al Raby School for Community & Environment and Morgan Park High School have boasted of numerous successes. Freshmen & Sophomore on Track rates, graduation rates, and student support systems significantly improved at both schools. Dr. Skanes secured countless grants which created mentoring and extracurricular opportunities for students. Through an intentional focus on student support, dropout rates decreased while early college and career credentials significantly improved.

Dr. Skanes is an accomplished mentor, speaker, writer, and school leader. She is a visionary leader and extraordinary problem solver who is often acknowledged for her strong but calm leadership style. As a leader, she is most proud of her ability to develop other successful school leaders.

She is very serious about her most important role in life which is serving as a mother to three wonderful children. Dr. Skanes has a strong passion for supporting blended families. Dr. Skanes is married to Firefighter Christopher R. Skanes and their love blended their families. Together they are the parents of Imani, Chris Jr., Caval Jr, and they are Godparents to Kofi. Dr. Skanes is an encourager to many moms who are experiencing the rough seasons that are inevitable in motherhood. She is passionate about helping parents develop their parenting and leadership skills as a key lever for cultivating healthy children. Dr. Skanes seeks to make the world a better place by strengthening parenting skills, molding well rounded children, and making schools pillars in their communities. Dr. Femi Skanes is the author of Encouragement for the School Leader’s Soul which is available for purchase on Amazon.

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Dorian Spears

Partnerships and Strategy Lead, GET Cities

Dorian Spears

Dorian Spears believes that the solutions and brilliance to solve community challenges exist within residents who live there everyday. As National Program Partnerships and Strategy Lead with the Gender Equality in Tech (GET) Cities initiative (seeded by Pivotal Ventures, a Melinda French Gates Company), Dorian leverages relationships to create systems change and better outcomes for marginalized genders in the Black, brown, and Indigenous communities who currently work or desire a career in the technology sector. In her recent role as Chief Partnerships Officer at Momentum Nonprofit Partners, Dorian built bridges across the sectors of government, business, higher education, and neighborhood leadership in the greater Memphis area to uplift what works while addressing community challenges.

She also led an effort bringing together organizations on the journey of operationalizing equity, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace facilitated by Beloved Community called Equity at Work; Dorian also facilitates sessions around this topic. The pinnacle of her work with Momentum was serving as chair of the committee to host Michael McAfee and Angela Glover Blackwell, of PolicyLink as keynote speakers for the Equity Summit in partnership with The Vanderhaar Symposium at Christian Brothers University. She is an alum of Leadership Tennessee NEXT Cohort 2, New Memphis Institute Fellows Program, and Leadership Memphis – Grassroots Program. She has earned her Certified Nonprofit Professional credential with the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance and is now a Standards for Excellence® Licensed Consultant. Dorian was recently recognized by her alma mater Christian Brothers University for 150 Alumni for 150 Years of Lasallian Education.

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Walidah-Tureaud-Willies-Warriors

Walidah Tureaud

Manager of Community Relations, UChicago Medicine's Urban Health Initiative

Walidah Tureaud

Walidah Tureaud is a proud native of Chicago’s south side and a long-time health advocate. She has a deep commitment to the community as evidenced by her service as a volunteer at DuSable Museum during her teen years and currently in her professional career.

Walidah has spent over twenty years working with community-based organizations, supporting schools, and in various leadership roles while also serving on several health committees and as a board member of the girl-serving organization, Joanie Girls Heart. Walidah is currently living a full circle moment as she gets to execute what she learned from watching her family be of service to their community in the south and as a student of Community Health at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Today, Walidah serves as Manager of Community Relations for UChicago Medicine’s Urban Health Initiative leading community engagement efforts with the support of physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals. Her day-to-day includes leading a team tasked with managing wellness programs, community communications efforts and developing strategic partnerships with various stakeholders such as community organizations and faith institutions focused on reducing health disparities.

Her role also includes executing health and wellness activities in support of organizations having a local and national reach such as the Black Women’s Expo, Real Men Charities, Strides for Peace and Defender Charities to name a few.

She believes that her daily reward is directly related to providing tangible resources that support better health outcomes for the community at large. Walidah looks forward to offering more access to health programs, including additional opportunities for young people interested in healthcare careers.

While not working, Walidah treasures quality time with her family and friends. She enjoys dancing, gardening, exploring new restaurants, live music, travel, and cultural activities.

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Debra Vines

Founder & CEO, The Answer Inc. Autism Awareness & Support Agency

Debra Vines

Debra Vines knows too well and understands the importance of advocacy, community involvement and partnership as her son Jason was diagnosed with Autism at 18 months.

In response, she founded The Answer, Inc., in 2007, a NFP organization that assist parents and caregivers in navigating through the systems of social services and academic institutions by providing: case management/referral services, recreation, and resources for families with individuals having Autism or other developmental disorders.

She also knows just how important it is to sincerely give selflessly to promote and create change in the lives of persons with Autism and other disabilities. Her greatest accomplishment has been to watch the families that she has aided reach milestones that were once told would be unobtainable.

  • Senator Kimberly Lightford Women Committee
  • Erikson Institute, Fellow/Policy Writer
  • CNN Hero Top 10
  • Co-Author “Disrupting The Status Quo
  • Co-Host of 1390am Brunch Bunch Show
  • State Appointed Autism Task Force Member
  • State Appointed Department of Education for Disabled Children Member
  • Bellwood Chamber of Commerce, Board Director
  • Department of Defense (Autism), Peer Reviewer
  • Co-Host of 1390am Brunch Bunch Show
  • Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Community Leader Award
  • Delta Sigma Theta Community Leader Award
  • Hillside Commission Dr. Martin Luther King Dream Award
  • AAABNA Community Service Award
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