Allyson - Lead, Arts with Good Chaos - is an accomplished executive with cross-sectoral experience as an arts administrator, lawyer, "big Four" consultant, and many-decades practicing professional dancer / choreographer, with 15+ years of philanthropic strategy and program design and implementation, leading grantmaking, advocacy, policy and research initiatives.An accomplished executive with cross-sectoral experience as an arts administrator, lawyer, "big Four" consultant, and many-decades practicing professional dancer / choreographer, with 15+ years of philanthropic strategy and program design and implementation, leading grantmaking, advocacy, policy and research initiatives.

Erin Harkey most recently served as the Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) — appointed to the post by Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot in November 2021. She holds 20 years of experience working in the nonprofit and government sector helping individuals and communities succeed through the arts.

Commissioner Harkey has served the City of Chicago since 2016 as Projects Administrator, then Deputy Commissioner for Programming, then First Deputy Commissioner and Acting Commissioner at DCASE, following the retirement of Mark Kelly. In her dual role as Senior Policy Advisor for Arts in Culture in the Mayor’s Office, she advised on cultural policy and arts strategy across all City departments and agencies. She previously managed public art programs at Los Angeles County Arts Commission and the Arts Council for Long Beach. She holds two master’s degrees in Public Art Administration and Urban Planning from the University of Southern California (USC) and a bachelor’s degree in Marketing from Howard University.

Sandra works with the Chicago Commitment team with a primary focus on the Culture, Equity, and the Arts grantmaking area.

Sandra worked for more than eight years with The Chicago Community Trust, where she was most recently the Program Manager for Community Impact as well as the Program Officer for Arts and Culture. In the program manager role, she worked on neighborhood and community wealth building. Sandra brings over 15 years of experience working to advance arts and culture in the areas of social well-being and cohesion, education, and economic systems. Prior to joining the Trust, she worked at The Field Museum leading collaborative programs and at the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance in fundraising and development. Sandra participated in the Fellowship in Arts and Culture Management program by The Chicago Community Trust—a highly selective, rigorous initiative that provided leadership experience through residencies at some of the most renowned cultural institutions throughout the city. 

Sandra earned a master’s degree in business with a concentration in international business from DePaul University in Chicago and a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York. Fluent in Spanish.

 Sandra is co-chair of the Arts Work Fund for Organizational Development and AMPT: Advancing Nonprofit Funder Council. She serves as board member of the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture.

Michelle T. Boone is President & CEO of the Poetry Foundation based in Chicago, Illinois. Appointed in May 2021, Michelle is the first woman and first African American to lead the organization. The Poetry Foundation is one of the nation’s largest funders of poetry and publishes Poetry magazine, the oldest English-language journal dedicated to the art form. It also administers the annual Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, one of the most prestigious honors for a living US-based poet.

Previously, Michelle was the Chief Program and Civic Engagement Officer at Navy Pier, a historic landmark and top cultural destination and attraction in the Midwest. In this role, she designed, developed, and presented Navy Pier’s arts and culture public programs, festivals, and special events, and was a member of the executive leadership team helping to shape organizational strategy.  Other duties included overseeing the Marketing/Communications division, and the Pier’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion strategies and staff engagement.  

In 2011, Michelle was appointed Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) by Mayor Rahm Emanuel.  During her tenure, she led a team of more than 80 full-time employees to produce and present over 2,000 public programs, multiple large-scale festivals, and special events annually; supervised the management of the historic Chicago Cultural Center; led the process for a new Chicago Cultural Plan (released in 2012); and launched the Chicago Architecture Biennial in 2015, the city’s first international exhibition of contemporary architecture and design. Prior to that, Michelle was a senior program officer at the Joyce Foundation (2004–2011) managing the culture portfolio and distributing more than $2 million annually in grants supporting artists and nonprofit arts organizations in six major Midwest cities (Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Detroit, Cleveland, Indianapolis).

Michelle’s professional career includes work in television, film, and the recording industries, and she served as a United States Peace Corps Volunteer in Chad, Africa (1994-96).  Michelle holds a bachelor’s degree in telecommunications and a master’s degree in public affairs (nonprofit management) from Indiana University, Bloomington; in 2015, the IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs honored her with its Distinguished Alumni Award.  Boone is the recipient of multiple honors including being named a “Cultural Champion” by the Chicago Cultural Alliance in 2019; named “Design Leader of the Moment” by New City magazine (April 2019); and “Chicagoan of the Year” (architecture) by the Chicago Tribune in 2015.  She currently serves on the boards of Americans for the Arts (vice chair); Arts Alliance Illinois; The Arts Club of Chicago; Chicago Architecture Biennial; the Chicago Public Library; the Graham Foundation; and is on the Board of Governors for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Michelle is currently studying for a doctorate in philanthropy at Indiana University.

Kalena Chevalier was most recently the Deputy Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE). Kalena has 14 years of experience working in Chicago's arts and culture community. She has worked artistically and administratively with organizations including Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company and Writers' Theatre, and most recently as the Associate Director of Development for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, where she managed foundation and government fundraising efforts over seven years. She is also a playwright and her plays have been workshopped, developed and produced by several local storefront theaters. Kalena graduated from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor with degrees in Theatre, Dramatic Writing and History.

Mia Khimm is a New-York native who has worked across the nonprofit, philanthropic, and commercial arts sectors, developing collaborative cultural programs and partnerships in Chicago and beyond. As Joyce’s Culture Program Director, Mia oversees the Foundation’s signature Joyce Awards and works closely with cultural leaders and partners across disciplines throughout Chicago and the Great Lakes region to advance The Foundation’s culture grant making strategy, anchored in support of artists of color and organizations led by and serving artists and communities of color.

Mia was previously Managing Director at EXPO CHICAGO, the international exposition for contemporary & modern art, and has held positions at the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago, among other arts organizations and entities. Mia has a master’s degree in Art History from the University of Chicago, where she specialized in modern art and architecture, and a bachelor’s in Art History and Psychology from Wesleyan University in Connecticut.

Meida Teresa McNeal is Artistic and Managing Director of Honey Pot Performance. Over the past two decades, she has produced numerous creative projects as both a solo artist and with Honey Pot Performance, with works performed in Illinois, Missouri, Rhode Island, Ohio, California, and Trinidad. She received her PhD in Performance Studies (Northwestern) and her MFA in Choreography & Dance History (Ohio State). Awards include Field Foundation’s Leaders for a New Chicago, 3Arts Award in Dance, Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist, and the Links’ Hall Co-Missions Fellowship. An Independent Artist and Scholar at the intersection of performance studies, dance, and critical ethnography, she is part time faculty at University of Chicago and Columbia College Chicago. Meida also works with the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events' Executive Administration team as the Senior Manager of Arts & Community Impact Investments building and implementing artist recovery programs and creative placemaking grantmaking initiatives. Prior to this role, Meida worked with the Chicago Park District as Arts & Culture Manager supporting community arts partnerships, youth arts, cultural stewardship, and civic engagement initiatives.

Nina D. Sánchez is a proud second-generation Chicagoan with roots in Pilsen and Central Mexico. As Director of Enrich Chicago, she collaborates with a collective of 40 arts and philanthropic institutions working to end systemic racism in the arts. She has served in a variety of capacities within multicultural leadership initiatives, direct-service, and education sectors, building anti-racism frameworks, disrupting systemic inequity at its core, and mobilizing strategic plans into meaningful programs, opportunities, and institutional/individual actions. She leverages her strengths of strategy, ideation, and assessment to be an active voice for effective policies and systemic interventions that support increased racial equity in her hometown of Chicago.

Nadia Elokdah is vice president & director of programs at Grantmakers in the Arts

Eddie Torres is president & CEO at Grantmakers in the Arts