Ms. Hallett serves as the coordinator of all program activities of the project, holding Activity Teams accountable for meeting all deadlines and completing all deliverables; she is also one of two members of the Liaison Team working directly to coordinate with ISBE.
As the founder and former director of Cross City Campaign, Ms. Hallett was one of the initial leaders of the Chicago Learning Campaign(CLC), the parent collaborative of Grow Your Own Illinois.
Ms. Watkins directs the formal record-keeping and accounting components of the project.
Ms. Watkins founded TARGET Area Development Corporation in 1995 as a community organization spun off from Ambassadors for Christ Church in Chicago’s South Side Auburn Gresham neighborhood, and continues as the organization’s Executive Director. Ms. Watkins is also trained as an accountant.
Stephen Andrews, Technology and Resource Coordinator
Stephen Andrews coordinates all information technology components of the project, including the project website; he will lead the research effort to determine the availability of other sources of funds and serve as an assistant to Ms. Hallett in project coordination.
Mr. Andrews is the president of his own technology firm, Andrews Technologies Management, which develops web-based and desktop database applications and other network tools for nonprofit organizations. But he came to Chicago Learning Campaign as a proposal writer and project coordinator in 2002, and has worked on the GYO project since its inception, contributing to the drafting of the original law and many supporting documents.
GYO Illinois Coalition DIrectors
Madeline Talbott directs the outreach component of Grow Your Own Illinois, supervising the project’s Consulting Organizers in their field efforts with potential consortia.
Ms. Talbott became the Lead Organizer of Action Now at its founding in 2007. From her previous position, she convened the group of organizations that has become the Chicago Learning Campaign, the parent collaborative of Grow Your Own Illinois.
Ms Travis will concentrate on planning and coordinating regional meetings, the statewide conference, and meetings of the advisory panel.
Ms. Travis, the Executive Director of KOCO since 2000, has overseen the revitalization of that organization, especially in the field of education, and was instrumental in bringing KOCO into the Chicago Learning Campaign. A holder of the Masters Degree from the school of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago, Ms. Travis has also worked in fundraising and special events coordination.
Mr. Bartow represents Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP) in all project decision-making, and has a special focus on relations between public school systems and the developing projects.
Mr. Bartow, the Executive Director of SWOP for the last six years, has done organizing work in several Chicago communities and in Latin America.
Nancy Aardema
Ms. Aardema is the longtime director of the Logan Square Neighborhood Association (LSNA) on Chicago's near Northwest side. The early commitment of LSNA to long-term school reform work, including direct involvement in transforming schools into centers of community activity both during the school day and into the evenings, led to an emphasis on recruiting parents for active classroom which in turn became the foundation of Nueva Generacion, the prototype on which Grow Your Own Teachers is based.
Jesus Garcia
Mr. Garcia, a former Chicago alderman state legislator, is the Executive Director of GYO Illinois' newest organizational member, the Little Village Community Development Corporation. Since the parent-led hunger strike which forced the school system to release funding for a new high school in the near Southwest side community. education has been a key cornerstone of LVCDC's strategy for revitalizing the neighborhood.
Consulting Organizers
Consulting organizers develop statewide activities, promote the expansion of the program, and provide assistance to new consortia.
Bridget Murphy, LSNA
Imelda Salazar, SWOP
Angelique Gordon, TARGET
Michael Gardner, Action Now
Marianna Boyd, TARGET
Roderick Wilson, KOCO
Fanny Diego-Alvarez, LVCDC
Consultants
Maria-Teresa Garreton
Dr. Garreton’s key contribution to the project is in two areas: working with site consulting organizers before and after consultations to clarify and help resolve issues in the participation of teacher preparation programs and their institutions in local consortia; and helping design the external evaluation.
Dr. Garreton runs the bilingual program at Chicago State University that was selected by LSNA to create and run the Nueva Generacion program; she wrote the initial federal grant proposals, assisted in recruiting and screening students, and continues to supervise the effort. Since 2001, she has also served as Chairperson, Department of Special Education, Early Childhood and Bilingual Education at CSU.
Elizabeth Skinner
Dr. Skinner participates actively in parts of the project that support the development of organizational and program models for GYO implementation, especially training and supporting organizers for the local consultations, contributing to Best Practices documents, moderating some of the information exchange forums of the web site, and planning and presenting at the state-wide conferences.
Dr. Skinner, a faculty member in bilingual education at Chicago State University, has been the onsite coordinator for Nueva Generacion in Logan Square since 2000, pioneering a role that is now considered by experts to be critical to the success of GYO cohorts.
