Robin Steans

Robin Steans is President of Advance Illinois, an independent policy and advocacy organization working toward a healthy public education system that enables all students to achieve success in college, career and civic life. She is also Board Chair of the Steans Family Foundation, where she helps guide education and community development grant making in the North Lawndale community.  A longtime public school parent, Robin Steans has spent over twenty years working on public school reform.  She served as Issues Director of the Small Schools Coalition, as Associate Director of Leadership for Quality Education, and taught at public high schools in Boston, San Francisco and Chicago before going on to earn her law degree.

Ms. Steans serves as a Trustee of the University of Chicago Medical Center, and is co-founder and past Board Chair of the Celiac Disease Center at the University of Chicago.  She helped found and currently serves as a Director of North Lawndale College Preparatory Charter High School, and has served on two Local School Councils.

Robin graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from Brown University, received her master’s degree in Education from Stanford University, and attended law school at the University of Chicago, where she graduated cum laude and Order of the Coif. She is married and has three children, all of whom attended and graduated from Chicago Public Schools.

Kristienne Hanna

Kristienne Hanna joined Advance Illinois as Director of Development in 2019 with the primary focus of growing the organization’s fundraising efforts. Through her prior work as a fundraising operations director and grants consultant, she gained extensive experience generating revenue streams to develop and sustain critical, life-changing programs for social service, healthcare and workforce development organizations. Kristienne serves on the board of the Chicago Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, most recently as the chapter president, and is an active mom of three children just beginning their school years. She is a graduate of Drake University and holds an advanced degree in business from North Park University.

Jim O’Connor

Jim O’Connor grew up on a farm near Kankakee, Illinois and has degrees from University of Notre Dame, the University of Chicago, and National Louis University. Before joining Advance Illinois, Jim was a Noble Street Charter School teacher, and the founding principal at KIPP Ascend Charter School in Chicago, where he was a principal for six years. Jim was also the Executive Director of Student Services at School District U-46 in Illinois, where he administered SES tutoring for 1,000 students. Jim is an elected school board member in an elementary school district with about 5,600 students (including his two children) in Oak Park, Illinois. Jim works to ensure that every student has the opportunity to attain an excellent education.

Jessica Ramos

Jessica is the Project Director at Advance Illinois. As a proud daughter of Mexican immigrants and with roots stemming from the Southwest side of Chicago, Jessica is committed to elevating communities historically marginalized by the policy making process including Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities. With professional experience spanning from Colorado to Illinois, Jessica sees the urgency to organize to disrupt the systemic inequities that continue to impact our communities. Her work at Advance Illinois involves developing and executing advocacy strategy across the B-20 continuum, including leading the post-secondary education advocacy work. 

During her time at Advance Illinois, Jessica has served in several capacities on the community engagement team, including her former role as Director. She has led and supported coalitions around the organization's key priorities and restructured the Educator Advisory Council, a council of diverse, outstanding educators from across the state, to ensure elements of diversity, equity, and inclusion were embedded in the recruitment, onboarding, and cohort experience. Prior to joining Advance Illinois, Jessica taught 6th and 8th grade language arts, as well as 9th grade multicultural studies. She studied broadcast journalism with concentrations in Latina/o studies and political science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is currently a master's student at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. 

Ann Whalen

Ann Whalen leads the policy team at Advance Illinois. Prior to joining Advance Illinois, Ann was the Associate Chief of Academics at Denver Public Schools, responsible for leading central Academic teams, to ensure that every day, every Denver Public Schools’ student received a rigorous, standards-based learning experience that prepares him or her for college and career. In this role, she oversaw the teams responsible for academic strategy; curriculum and instruction; professional learning; accountability, assessment and evaluation; library services, extended learning, education technology and competency based learning.

From 2015-2017, Ann served under Arne Duncan and John King as the Acting Assistant Secretary in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education at the US Department of Education, where she led and coordinated policy for programs designed to assist state and local education agencies with improving the achievement of elementary and secondary school students. As Acting Assistant Secretary, she managed a team that administered over $22.3 billion, with more than 80 grant programs designed to ensure equal access to a high-quality education for all preschool, elementary and secondary children, particularly the economically disadvantaged. From 2014 to 2015, Ann served as Director of Policy at Education Post. Prior to that, Ann served in various roles at the US Department of Education, first as a Special Assistant in the Office of the Secretary from 2009 to 2010, then as the Director of the Implementation and Support Unit from 2010 to 2014.

Before she joined the Obama Administration, Ann served as Deputy to the Chief Education Officer at Chicago Public Schools from 2006 to 2009 and as the Deputy Director of Special Initiatives for the Chief Executive Officer of Chicago Public Schools from 2003 to 2006. From 2002 to 2003, she was a Project Administrator at the Chicago Department of Planning and Development. Ann was born and raised in Chicago and lives with her family on the city’s west side.

Taryn Williams

Taryn Williams leads the communications team at Advance Illinois.

From Fox & Friends to Time Magazine, Taryn is a media maven, garnering national and local media coverage for major brands such as McDonald’s, Harley Davidson and M&M’s. During her five-year stint in the Chicago office of global PR firm, Weber Shandwick, she was a sought after team member, developing strategic media angles to pierce even the toughest of publications. As one of the founding members of the Got Milk? social media team, Taryn and team oversaw content development for the brand’s emerging social media pages. At Burrell Communications, one the world’s most prominent multicultural marketing firms, she served as a program lead on McDonald’s and Toyota, managing client and media relations.

As a respected and trusted advisor to the brand, Taryn played a pivotal role in the creation of McDonald’s first ever at Burrell, she created and executed the award-winning PR program, McCafe Grind. Locally, Taryn has oversaw and executed communications strategies for emerging healthcare and security clients as well as state legislatures. She has secured coverage in major local and national media outlets such as Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Ebony Magazine, Good Day Chicago, and the Washington Post to name a few. Taryn is a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri – Columbia as well as Illinois school districts 132 and 218. She is also the proud mother of a CPS student and resides on the northwest side of Chicago.

Christi Chadwick

As a member of the policy team, Christi supports Advance Illinois’ work in early childhood. Christi has spent over 20 years focused on advancing high-quality early learning opportunities for young children, particularly those from under-resourced communities. Prior to her work at Advance Illinois, Christi worked in roles in Colorado and Illinois where she focused on issues related to developing, strengthening, and better compensating the early childhood workforce in positions such as Workforce Development Policy Director in the Illinois Governor’s Office for Early Childhood Development and Early Learning Policy Director in the City of Chicago Mayor’s Office. Additionally, Christi has worked on initiatives to ensure high-quality environments for young children, including serving as District Director for Child Development at City Colleges of Chicago, where she led the restructuring of five urban child development laboratory centers.
Christi began her career teaching kindergarten and has experience teaching college and mentoring student teachers. Christi received her bachelor’s and master’s in early childhood education from the University of North Texas, and her master’s of public policy from the Harris School at the University of Chicago, where she was an Irving B. Harris Child and Family Policy Fellow.

Melissa Figueira

Melissa Figueira was born and raised in Miami, Florida, where she attended public schools before moving to New York City to study Political Science and Sociology at Columbia University. She earned her Masters Degree in Education Policy from Teachers College at Columbia University, with a focus on K-12 Education. Her interest in advocacy and her firm belief in the need for comprehensive educational opportunity for all children grew out of several years of volunteering as an art teacher and summer school teacher in both Florida City and Harlem. Prior to joining Advance Illinois, Melissa worked with the Research and Policy Support Group at the New York City Department of Education.

José L. García

Born and raised in Chicago, José García began his professional career as an English teacher and college counselor at the very high school he graduated from. José is passionate about ensuring that all students have equal access to the opportunity of getting to and through college.

After teaching for two years and obtaining his Master of Arts in Teaching degree from Relay Graduate School of Education, José moved south to the state of Texas to pursue his dream of working in broadcast journalism. He was an anchor and reporter at a local ABC affiliate.

José moved back home a few months later and joined Acero Schools, the second-largest charter school network in the city, as a public affairs specialist. While at Acero Schools, José mainly focused the organization’s multimedia marketing efforts for brand awareness, recruitment, and enrollment.

Before joining the Advance Illinois team in February 2020, José was deputy press secretary in the Office of Communications at Chicago Public Schools.

José graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in communication from Denison University in Granville, Ohio.

Gerson Ramirez

Gerson was born and raised in the northwest side of Chicago and is a proud Chicago Public Schools alumnus. He earned his BA in Sociology from North Park University and a master's degree in public policy from the University of Michigan. Gerson most recently served as a Policy Advisor for the Committee on Economic, Capital and Technology Development in Chicago's City Hall.

Ayesha Safdar

Ayesha grew up in the western suburbs of Chicago. She earned degrees in Political Science and Psychology at Loyola University before pursuing a Master’s in Public Policy at the University of Chicago’s Harris School. Most recently, she has been working in the public health space in Chicago.

Mercedes Wentworth-Nice

Born and raised in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Mercedes moved to Chicago to study Computer Science and Public Policy at the University of Chicago. Most recently, Mercedes focused on increasing college enrollment and completion in roles at City Colleges of Chicago and the To&Through Project / UChicago Consortium on School Research.

Abby Railsback

Abby Railsback grew up in Kansas before moving to Missouri for a Bachelor of Arts in Theater at Missouri Southern State University. After college, she moved out to the East Coast for graduate school and obtained her Master of Fine Arts in Acting from Regent University.
Prior to joining the team at Advance Illinois, Abby worked for a nonprofit children’s theater, Hampstead Stage Company, where she created an education program and became the lead teacher for the program teaching as an arts vendor in CPS for a year while maintaining her position as the programs administrator. With a foundation of over seven years of credentialing and customer service, organizational skill has become second nature. She is excited to diversify her skillset within the nonprofit world as the office manager for the talented team at Advance Illinois.

Jelani Saadiq

Jelani is the director of governmental relations at Advance Illinois. He is driven to work on and fight for strong legislation that works in the best interest of our students, families, and communities. Jelani began his professional career in municipal finance with Comer Capital Group, LLC in Jackson, MS. It was during his time at Comer Capital Group, LLC where Jelani fostered his passion for working with and empowering school districts, municipalities, public universities, and the states as a whole. After graduating from Jackson State University with his degree in finance, he moved back to Illinois to join the public sector as a research and appropriations analyst for the speaker's staff in Springfield, Illinois. As a staffer, Jelani had the opportunity to lead the general services and higher education teams for the speaker’s office. In his spare time, Jelani enjoys exercising, traveling, taking his dog on long walks, and watching classic horror movies.

Sherijay L. Innocent

Sherijay is an emigrant from Jamaica and a long-time Chicago resident. She graduated from Loyola University Chicago with honors in Political Science, B.A. During her time at Loyola, she chartered and served as the president of a non-profit that empowers young women to run for public office. She has a history of lobbying for action around homelessness and climate change, as well as working with elected officials and community leaders to cultivate a more equitable society for Chicagoans. She previously worked with the City of Chicago through the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and with the Cori Bush for Congress 2020 campaign, where she conducted and wrote research on policies related to criminal and economic justice, maternal healthcare, and tuition-free university education; in addition to producing campaign op-eds and civic engagement initiatives.

Her most recent work history includes positions such as policy associate for Humanity First for Illinois and political director for a grassroots congressional campaign.

Sherijay intends to dedicate her life to serving the public good by advocating for communities that are often neglected and left behind.

Angela Farwig

Angela focuses on early childhood education policy at Advance Illinois. She has held a variety of leadership positions in the early childhood field, including with Start Early in Chicago, IL and the Community Learning Center Institute in Cincinnati, OH. Prior to her career in early childhood, Angela was a litigation associate with a global law firm. She has an M.P.P. from Loyola University Chicago, a J.D. from the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, and a B.A. in Sociology from Boston College. She has bounced between Ohio and Illinois over the course of her professional life and now happily resides with her family in Chicago, where her two children attend Chicago Public Schools.

Eucarol Juarez

A native Chicagoan, Eucarol Juarez attended DePaul University and graduated with a major in Psychology, a concentration in Human Development and a minor in Early Childhood Education. She spent several years working and volunteering with children. Most recently, she has worked as a project coordinator. She is excited to join the Advance Illinois team.

Cheryl Flores

As a first-generation college graduate, Cheryl understands the gender, economic, cultural, and social barriers young people face to reach their potential and continue their educational goals.  It was through these experiences that led her to the education space. 

Prior to joining the team at Advance Illinois, Cheryl spent time working with community-based organizations on youth development, youth organizing, community schools, and education issues. Most recently, Cheryl worked for the Golden Apple Foundation ensuring that preservice teachers had the academic and social-emotional supports to graduate and thrive as teachers in the classroom.  

Over the years, she has been involved with different organizations and non-profit boards, most recently, as a board member for Telpochcalli Community Education Project (TCEP), a community-based organization on the southwest side of Chicago. She is an alumna of the Illinois Latino Nonprofit Academy with the Latino Policy Forum and a 2019 Surge Fellow with the Surge Institute. Cheryl is currently a doctoral student in Policy Studies in Urban Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She holds a Master of Public Administration from DePaul University and earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago. In her spare time, she enjoys running and trying new cooking or baking recipes.

Kelsey Bakken

Kelsey Bakken spent seven years teaching Special Education at a neighborhood high school in Gage Park, Chicago. Through that venture, Kelsey became passionate about ensuring that all students had access to the resources and opportunities needed to hone their college and career readiness skills. During her time at Eric Solorio Academy High School, Kelsey also worked to build the cheer program at the school and was assistant softball coach.  

Kelsey transitioned out of the classroom to focus on research and policy attending the Harvard Graduate School of Education where she completed a master’s program in Education Policy and Management. Most of Kelsey’s research and policy experience stems from her time at the Illinois State Board of Education in which she held various roles in the Research Department. One of her primary projects included facilitating the mixed methods Evidence-Based Funding Five-Year Evaluative Study in collaboration with the Professional Review Panel. Other projects included an analysis of Bilingual educator supply and demand, how to implement trauma-informed practices statewide, and understanding the implementation of newly passed Black History Curriculum. Most recently Kelsey advised on the evaluation of current Learning Renewal programming and how best to use data to better understand the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bravetta Hassell

Bravetta Hassell is a native of Alexandria, Virginia, and a proud alumna of Hampton University (B.A.) and Northwestern University’s Medill School (M.S.J) where she studied print journalism. In Chicago, Bravetta she discovered nonprofit communications as a vehicle that went beyond reporting about an issue and provided an opportunity be part of the solution – leveraging various communications channels and approaches for advancing work that has direct impact.  

Bravetta’s career in communications began at Start Early (formerly The Ounce) where she worked across teams to develop advocacy outreach and coordinate the design of print and video training resources. At the Cook County Pension Fund, Bravetta ensured more than 40,000 employees and annuitants of Cook County and the Forest Preserve District had timely and accessible news and information about pension, retiree health, and disability benefits. Just prior to joining Advance, Bravetta served as the first Senior Communications Manager for the Partnership for College Completion, where she was responsible for formalizing the organization’s communications function and developing a strategy to increase the new organization’s brand recognition, reach, and influence.  

A product of public schools and key trajectory-setting caring, supportive, and rigorous learning experiences, Bravetta today finds it a privilege to use communications to elevate Advance’s advocacy and thought leadership to ensure every Illinois student has access to high-quality education. 

Nicole Bela

Nicole grew up in Detroit, Michigan, where her mother taught special education in Detroit for over 30 years. Growing up listening to stories of the inequities in the education system, Nicole hoped to one day be a part of creating change in the community. Nicole has her BA in Psychology from Michigan State University and her Masters in Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis, where she concentrated on Social and Economic Development and Non-Profit Management. She focused much of her concentration on the education system.  Nicole was awarded her CFRE (Certified Fund Raising Executive) in March 2022.  

Over the last decade, Nicole has found her niche in the philanthropic sector, creating impact for local and national non-profits as a fundraiser. After five years focusing on Holocaust Education through her work at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and then the Holocaust Center for Humanity in Seattle, Nicole returned to Chicago in search of the next meaningful step in her career. She is thrilled to finally have found her way to Advance Illinois where she can take her passion for fundraising to help make a meaningful impact on education in Illinois.  

Berenice Martinez

Bere was born in the southwest side of Chicago and is the first person in her family to graduate from college. She graduated from the University of Chicago with a double major in Public Policy and Sociology. Through various internships and research projects, Bere was able to gain a nuanced understanding of the inequities plaguing our communities. Bere recently worked at Applegate & Thorne-Thomsen, P.C., a law firm focused on affordable housing and community development.

Eyob Villa-Moges

Raised in Evansville, Indiana as the son of two Ethiopian immigrants, Eyob studied economics and political science at Indiana University-Bloomington. After graduation, he worked in the higher education community at Purdue University as a community organizer and student mentor. Most recently, Eyob focused on data integrity, survey methodology, and statistical analysis as a part of the General Social Survey at NORC at the University of Chicago. Through his upbringing and education, Eyob learned the essential role that public policy plays in influencing and determining social and economic outcomes for individuals and communities alike. He is committed to using data-driven, socially-informed insights to close knowledge gaps that stand in the way of crafting better, more equitable, policy solutions for Illinois.

Maty Ortega Cruz

Maty is a nonprofit professional with 6 years of experience from the South East side of Chicago. They are a first-generation graduate who earned their BA in Biology in 2018 from Knox College, and obtained an MPPA from Northwestern University in 2023. Through their work, they have become familiar with the issues facing education, environmental justice, food access, and equity. Maty's experiences include engaging community and corporate volunteers, as well as schools, educators, and families across different districts. Through this journey, Maty has developed a passion for ensuring that every action has an explanation on why the work is important to the respective community and how to ensure work being done is sustainable, impactful, and done in collaboration. As a Chicago native, Maty prioritizes work that focuses on culturally appropriate translation, racial justice and client centered program development.

Jeremiah Phillips

Jeremiah grew up in Greenville, NC before earning a B.A in Black Studies from Amherst College. As a first/gen low-income student and a product of the public school system, Jeremiah owes all his past and future successes to the educators in his life who invested in him.
Before joining Advance Illinois Jeremiah was a development intern at Ravinia Festival. He is excited to serve as the first development associate in Advance Illinois’ history and support the great work being done by the Advance Illinois team.

Maya Portillo

Maya grew up in Tucson, Arizona and Northwest Indiana. Having experienced cross-state educational systems, Maya is passionate about educational equity issues – particularly for children ages 0-5. Maya has worked in various roles ranging from research, evaluation, community organizing, philanthropy, and policy. Prior to this role, Maya worked as a Policy Associate in early childhood education funding equity. Maya holds a B.S. from Cornell University majoring in Industrial Labor Relations and minoring in Education and Inequality Studies and an M.P.A. from New York University focusing on Public and Non-Profit Management and Policy Analysis.

Jen Kirmes

Jennifer Kirmes is a native of Massachusetts and holds a bachelor's degree in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, a master’s degree in teaching from American University and a doctorate in urban school leadership from the University of Illinois Chicago. Jen taught science and math and served as a principal in Chicago Public Schools and the charter sector. In her school and district leadership roles, she was known for fostering teacher leadership, dramatically improving school culture and student on-track rates and supporting students to achieve district-leading college enrollment and persistence rates. Immediately prior to joining Advance Illinois, she served as Executive Director of Teaching and Learning at the Illinois State Board of Education where she led work to strengthen and diversify the educator workforce, provide resources and professional learning to improve the effectiveness and rigor of instruction in Illinois classrooms, and to improve access and quality in career and technical education.  Jen is deeply committed to ensuring excellent educational outcomes for all students and passionate about achieving educational justice.

Indigo Sherck

Originally from Eugene, Oregon, Indigo comes to Advance Illinois with a background in political science and law. She graduated summa cum laude from Oregon State University Honors College with a Bachelor's in Political Science and recently earned her Master’s Degree from the University of Chicago, where her research interests included political extremism and domestic terror. Prior to moving to Chicago, Indigo worked for 7 years in the legal field as a law clerk, specializing in environmental law and elder law. She is excited to bring the skills she learned from both her academic and professional careers to the office manager role at Advance Illinois. In her spare time, Indigo enjoys spending time with her cat, attending book club meetings, and long walks along Lake Michigan.

Fiona Fleming

Fiona is a native Chicagoan, who was born and raised on the southwest side of the city. She comes to Advance Illinois after earning her BA and MS in Sociology, both from Illinois State University. She is extremely proud to support the work being done here at Advance Illinois. Prior to her current role, Fiona served as a human resources assistant. In her spare time, Fiona enjoys reading and spending time with her loved ones.