Who Are We?
Board of Directors
Kristen Atkinson
Kristen began working with youth and young adults as a student leader in anti-violence and anti-poverty initiatives. In 2003, she received her Master’s of Social Work from San Francisco State University and is currently working on her PhD at Jane Addams College of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Kristen is an active participant and leader in the Venus Collective, a grassroots group of artists and activists celebrating women’s cultural contributions and raising awareness of women’s issues. Whether working as an organizer, community educator or adult ally, Kristen is continually inspired by the power of people to impact the world around them.
Quinton Davis
Bio coming soon.
Keisha Farmer-Smith
Keisha manages the Girl World program at Alternatives, Inc. She has enjoyed working with youth in the Child Welfare and Youth Development arenas for nine years. She is also on the Women and Girls Collective Action Network Board of Directors. Her interest in youth organizing stems from a passionate belief that young people hold the energy, creativity, talent and intelligence to demand systematic social change for marginalized populations. Currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Urban Planning & Policy Analysis, Keisha’s research involves use of feminist standpoint and asset-based theories in community work with girls and women.
Nicole Jurek
Nicole manages Elev8 programs at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Chicago. She also serves on the Senn High School Strategic Planning Committee. Over the past ten years, Nicole has worked with youth and adults in crisis intervention, advocacy, violence prevention, and youth development. In 2007, Nicole earned a Master’s degree in Education. She believes that a more just world begins when we utilize self-reflection and communal learning to create our collective future. This philosophy brings Nicole to the Chicago Freedom School.
Mariame Kaba, Chair
Mariame Kaba is the founder and director of Project NIA. She is a community activist and organizer who serves in a number of volunteer capacities. She is a co-founder and adult ally of the Rogers Park Young Women’s Action Team. Mariame is a co-founder and current board chair of the Chicago Freedom School. She has served on the advisory boards of a number of local and national organizations including the Young Women’s Empowerment Project, Women & Girls Collective Action Network, and Power House Charter High School. She is currently on the advisory board of the Education for Liberation Network.
Carrie Kaufman, Secretary
Carrie became involved with CFS as an instructor for Freedom Fellows in the summer of 2008. She believes in empowering youth to change the community, and is a mentor for youth with and without disabilities. Through the freedom school, she works with the Chicago Alliance for Racial Equality to dismantle systems grounded in white privilege and address racism in the community. Carrie works as a case manager for Howard Brown, a community LGBT health center. As a member of Chicago ADAPT, she advocates for the rights of people with disabilities to live independently in their communities. Carrie is honored to be on the board of an organization that shares her goals of breaking down barriers, promoting popular education, honoring the history of social movements, living a healthy lifestyle, and fighting for freedom.
Francie McGowan, Treasurer
Francie, a Chicago native, got her start in youth work when she was a young person herself: In high school she volunteered for Jacob A. Riis Elementary School and the Illinois Center for Rehabilitation and Education in the South Loop. After earning her undergraduate degree, she spent a year living and working at a home for orphaned and abandoned children just Northeast of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, coordinating a girls’ program called Chicas Poderosas. After spending three wonderful years working in youth development and girls’ programming at Alternatives, Inc. in Uptown, Francie has moved on to seek a Masters in Education Policy Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Eva Nagao
Eva became interested in the transformative powers of pedagogy working with youth on both sides of the U.S./Mexico border to develop dynamic models of popular education in immigrant communities. Eva began her involvement with the Chicago Freedom School as a volunteer librarian and was immediately drawn in by the powerful intergenerational alliances at the Freedom School. Since moving to Chicago, she has played a variety of roles as an advocate in immigrant communities in the city. Eva now works as a paralegal for Loevy & Loevy, a civil rights law firm, as well as working with their University of Chicago affiliate, The Exoneration Project.
Manisha Paralikar
Manisha started volunteering with the Chicago Freedom School in 2007, attracted by the reciprocal passion both the organization and the youth had for each other. Throughout the years of working and volunteering, she has been consistently inspired by the empathetic leadership the youth provide in the community, and is proud to be part of an organization that fosters such leadership. Currently, Manisha works at the National Community Investment Fund.
Mauricio Pineda
Mauricio is an Ecuadorian immigrant who came to the United States four years ago. His life as a world citizen has been soulfully marked by an instinctive necessity to silently scream his freedom through visual expression. Back in Ecuador he supported ethnic communities to develop their own media, so they can have the power to generate information that’s relevant to their everyday life. Mauricio and his family, like many families in Ecuador, were victims of an oppressive system that establishes ignorance as a strategy to privilege certain social groups; as a result he fostered the belief that education is a real means to liberate individuals. However, growing up in a third world country, he also learned to understand that power dehumanizes individuals and that change can only be achieved when the oppressed acts with love to regain their rights without dehumanizing themselves. Mauricio is currently enrolled at Columbia College Chicago pursuing a masters degree in Art education. His aspiration as an art teacher is to deliver lessons that go beyond simply acquiring a skill to transcend to a level where creativity, freedom, responsibility and critical thinking meet to transform the dynamics of our society and bring peace to every soul.
Chez Rumpf
Chez has been committed to the anti-domestic violence struggle since 2000, when she volunteered at a domestic violence shelter in Chicago through her participation in the Associated Colleges of the Midwest Urban Studies Program. Since graduating from college in May 2001, she has worked in a variety of roles at domestic violence agencies in Chicago and was a case manager at the Center for Conflict Resolution, a non-profit organization that provides free mediation services. Chez currently is a doctoral student and an instructor at Loyola University Chicago’s Sociology Department, as well as a research assistant with Loyola’s Center for Urban Research and Learning (CURL). Chez earned her master’s degree in Sociology from Loyola in August 2008. Her master’s thesis was a qualitative study of Chicago’s domestic violence courthouse. Through her work and research, Chez has become increasingly aware of the need to challenge all forms of oppression, as well as to develop alternative strategies to respond to social injustices. She strongly believes that youth must be at the center of this work.
Mary Scott-Boria
Bio coming soon.
Shamone Shelton
Bio coming soon.
Mariana Williams
Mariana has held many leadership positions that have impacted her community in a positive way. Her organizational affiliations include the Mahdi Theatre Company and Hands Off Assata. Mariana stands by the motto “when you know better you do better” and she values work with intergenerational activist groups. She believes that education equals motivation and with that principle the nation is guaranteed a brighter future.