Our Team

Board President

G. Sequane Lawrence

G. Sequane Lawrence is a Chicago Community Trust 2011 Fellow. His fellowship is concerned with the efficacy of worker owner cooperatives as an entrepreneurial and workforce development model for low-income people. Sequane led a delegation to Mondragon, in the Basque region of Spain to study first-hand the historic Mondragon Cooperatives Corporation and Cleveland, Ohio to observe the ground-breaking worker-owned Evergreen Cooperatives. 
Sequane is the President and CEO of Revolution Institute, a community economic development and workforce development organization in Chicago focused on advanced manufacturing, cooperative business development and the digital economy on behalf of under resourced communities. 
He is the former founding CEO of the Chicago Center for Arts and Technology (CHICAT), a state-of-the-art demand-side vocational/technical training institution and youth-centered arts program for low-income Chicago residents. 
Sequane is a founder of the African American Leadership and Policy Institute (AALPI), its first Director and currently serves as its VP and Treasurer. He is also a founder and the first Director for Fathers, Families, and Healthy Communities (FFHC) Demonstration Project. FFHC focuses on issues that impact low-income non-custodial fathers and their children throughout Illinois. He currently serves as the VP and Treasurer.
He was formerly the CEO of Youth Service Project (YSP), a youth development organization in the Humboldt Park community in Chicago where he led the way in providing youth-centered human services, market-driven workforce strategies, leadership development, entrepreneurship, economic development and comprehensive multi-media and arts programs for Latino and African-American youth. 
Sequane was the Director of the City of Chicago’s Quantum Demonstration Project, a wholistic and innovative national youth development program serving Grand Boulevard and Humboldt Park low-income out-of-school youth 16-24 years of age. 
Sequane is also member of the following boards: Business Professionals for the Public Interest (BPI), Jane Addams Resource Corporation (JARC), Chicago Community Trust African American Legacy Fund, and Revolution Workshop.
Sequane holds a Master of Science degree in Community Economic Development from New Hampshire College in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Treasurer

Michael Bennett

Michael Bennett At DePaul University, Dr. Bennett served as executive director of the Egan Urban Center (1997-2008) and Associate Professor in DePaul’s Department of Sociology where he teaches courses in urban planning, community development, economic and social policy, and issues of race and ethnicity. He has degrees from Kent State University (B.A. 1968), and The University of Chicago (A.M. 1972 and Ph.D. 1988). Dr. Bennett has taught at the University of Illinois-Chicago, The University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration, Columbia College (Chicago), Kent State University and The University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. Previously, he held positions with the nation’s first community development bank, ShoreBank Corporation in Chicago and Arkansas: president of The Neighborhood Institute, a non-profit community development corporation affiliated with ShoreBank; VP of South Shore Bank, and VP of the holding company, ShoreBank Corp. And for 18 years, Dr. Bennett served on the board of Shared Interest, a fund that along with its Johannesburg affiliate, the Thembani International Guaranty Fund, provides financing and technical assistance to small indigenous enterprises in South Africa. Other board memberships include: The African American Leadership and Policy Institute, the Asset Based Community Development Institute, the Endeleo Institute, The Imani Village LLC (Trinity United Church of Christ affiliates) and the Fathers, Families and Healthy Communities initiative.

Vice President

Ahmadou Dramé

Beyond work, Mo enjoys working out, traveling, and reading. A few of his favorite books include “I’ve Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle” and “Finding the Winning Edge” by Bill Walsh. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Political Science and his master’s degree in Public Administration, both from DePaul University.

Secretary

Lori Jenkins

Lorri Jenkins is an accomplished professional with more than 20 years of experience designing and managing programs and projects. She has comprehensive expertise in grant-making and funding, which has been acquired across numerous industries for the purpose of supporting individuals in realizing their potential, and guiding organizations in building capacity and sustainability.  She is a 2017 Education Pioneers Fellow who is committed to blending both research and practice in her work.  Lorri is committed to advancing social justice efforts and anticipates completion of her PhD in Curriculum and Instruction in 2021. As a researcher, her work utilizes critical race theory (CRT) as a framework through which she examines partnerships between community-based organizations and philanthropies. Lorri continues to empower others through her consultancy, TDG Partners, and holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in composition and literature.

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Lou Turner

Lou Turner was principal grant writer for the AALPI Steering Committee. He is currently Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban & Regional Planning and the College of Fine & Applied Arts at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. From 2008 to 2017, he was Director of Undergraduate and Graduate Studies in the Department of African American Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Previously, he was assistant professor of sociology, for 14 years, at North Central College, in Naperville, Illinois where he taught social theory, criminology, public policy, racial and ethnic relations, and urban sociology. In addition to teaching, Mr. Turner was the Director of Research and Public Policy for the Developing Communities Project, on Chicago’s far South Side (2000-2014), where he guided the community organization’s strategic and public policy work for the $2.4 billion mass transit capital project to extend the CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) Red Line from 95th Street to the City limits at 130th Street. Turner facilitated numerous public transportations studies on the Red Line Extension with University of Illinois-Chicago’s Voorhees Center, the Metropolitan Planning Council, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, and Center for Neighborhood Technology, funded by the Regional Transportation Authority, Chicago Community Trust, the Woods Fund and other foundations and governmental agencies. He also organized a successful campaign to place a policy referendum on the Red Line Extension on the 2004 ballot where it received the largest vote total of any referendum in Chicago. The synergy of public policy and community organizing that Lou Turner modeled in his work with DCP garnered the Chicago Donors Forum’s Community Organizing Award for DCP, in 2007. He earned his BFA from Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio.

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Robert E. Wordlaw

As the leader of this nationally recognized workforce policy organization, Bob brokered relationships between national, state, and local advocacy groups, governmental agencies, and private foundations to advance CJC’s mission of expanding employment and career advancement opportunities for people in poverty.  Bob retired as the Executive Director of CJC in December of 2015
Bob has served on  the Illinois Department Commerce and  Economic Opportunity’s Urban Weatherization Initiative Board of Directors, the former Governor’s Transition Team’s Labor Committee that developed recommendations regarding job training, unemployment insurance, worker’s compensation and minimum wage. Bob’s leadership helped establish national and state coalitions including: the Washington D.C.-based National Skills Coalition, of which he was a founding member of the Board of Directors, and locally helped found the State Agenda for Community and Economic Development (SACED), an Illinois coalition that successfully advocated for the creation of Illinois’ Job Training and Economic Development (JTED) grant program. In addition to serving on the governing boards of several community-based organizations, Bob was a member of the TIF Works Advisory Committee; the Social Service Advisory Committee of the Illinois Department of Human Services, the Workforce Development and Diversity subcommittee of the 2016 Olympic Outreach and Advisory Committee and the Chicago Cook Workforce Development Partnership Board of Directors.
Before joining CJC, Bob served 17 years as Executive Vice President of The Neighborhood Institute (TNI) where he successfully planned and administered employment preparation, skills training, and economic development programs aimed at moving people out of poverty. He integrated a carpentry training program with a City of Chicago Weatherization Program. The merger of these two efforts provided hands on training and real jobs for students and graduates of the program. Prior to TNI, he was Director of a west side office for the City of Chicago’s Department of Human Services and staff consultant for a Washington D.C.-based community development consulting firm, A.L. Nellum and Associates.   He received his bachelor’s degree from Goddard College (Plainfield, VT) 1978 and in 1995 completed a one-year fellowship program at Roosevelt University.
 
Bob is a founding member of the African American Leadership and Policy Institute.

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Stephen Alexander

Dr. Stephen Alexander is an urban planner and public policy analyst focusing on social justice issues impacting the black community on economic development, strategic planning, and workforce development. Alexander holds a Master’s degree in economics and a Ph.D.

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David Robinson

Robinson began his varied and unique professional life as a reporter for the Detroit News, then as an editor for United Press International (UPI), and later, as a senior editor and columnist for the Black Press Review, and the Agenda literary magazine.  In addition to his media management role at Manufacturing Renaissance, he continues as an occasional contributor to several other publications.  

In 1985, he was persuaded to join the Harold Washington administration’s economic development policy and program team in Chicago.  It was in his role as a city planner and later as an assistant commissioner where he developed a passion for innovative, socially inclusive economic development program design and implementation.  He spent several years developing cutting edge programs and policy focusing on municipal recycling and solid waste management and is considered an early pioneer in the industry.  

Robinson and a business partner launched a public affairs company in 1992 and managed a myriad of community-centered relationship and development projects for a host of clients including Taco Bell, Pepsico, Ameritech, Harris Bank, Chicago Urban League, United Health Care, numerous non-profits, and many others.  In his tenure he navigated government and public affairs challenges for complex $400 million level industrial developments such as the Robbins Recycling and Recovery Facility and the Summit waste services initiative.  He sold his shares in the late 90’s but the agency is still running after 30 years.

As a life-long community practivist, and in response to the growing violence and youth crises escalating in the early 2000s, Robinson joined the Black United Fund and concentrated on strategic program design in the social entrepreneurship arena.  He launched many innovative programs that helped at-risk individuals secure employment and mentoring to become more successful community members.  One such program was the Safe Passage school initiative, which provided safety routes to and from school, has been adopted citywide.  He also launched an intensive social service violence prevention model called the MASH (Making Stuff Happen) unit that, according to Chicago Police, contributed to the reduction of violent crime in the infamous service area known as ‘Terror Town’  by 33 percent.

After the passing of the Fund’s legendary CEO, Henry English, Robinson was recruited to join the team at Manufacturing Renaissance where he recognized the unequaled strength manufacturing presents for re-building struggling communities while also strengthening regional economies.  In his role as External Affairs Director, Robinson works to build political and community advocacy and policies around linking public education and community wealth building to the modern manufacturing industry in the spirit of social inclusion.  He is currently on the leadership team for a recently introduced Congressional bill that would bring $20 billion in training, job creation, company ownership, and manufacturing anchored community development to disenfranchised rural and urban communities throughout the nation.

Robinson’s many awards and citations include Who’s Who among African- American journalists in 1983, the Philadelphia Youth Services Award in 2003; the Pennsylvania Governor’s excellence award in 2004, the Living Legends: Passing the Torch community service award in 2010, in 2012 he was cited as one of the Chicago Defender’s Men of Excellence, and most recently in 2018, Cong. Danny Davis named him one of Chicago’s outstanding education-related program administrators.  Robinson is a proud Morehouse man, has three adult children, enjoys film; golf; jazz, travel, and martial arts.  In his spare time he mentors young people, writes in various genres, and he is a sought after political campaign and policy strategist.  

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Dr. Leslie Block

Prior to retiring, Leslie S. Block, Ph.D. established Leslie S. Block and Associates (LSBA) in 1985 as a comprehensive management and educational consulting firm.
LSBA’s strong track record of partnering with a variety of corporate, government, philanthropic and community-based organization clients across America and spanning the globe by providing research-based, best practices and real-time solutions to their critical problems. LSBA’s award winning management consulting services impacted policy development and allowed clients to achieve their strategic goals. 
Dr. Block believe all students have value, can and want to learn and can develop their inherent talents to become contributing members of society. He also believe that all parents want to be involve with the education of their children.  
Research has identified strong links among attendance, academic attainment, reduced truancy with the intentional support of the home and community social services partners.  The development and implementation of the Home Learning Academy for Parents and Students emanated from this premise and significantly improving school attendance, reading and math scores for students that once were below stanine in these academic areas. Coming under the auspices North Chicago Community Unit School District 187's Partners in Progress Program, which precipitated to the selection of the Superintendent as one North America’s top 100 school administrators Executive Educator magazine, 1991! 
Dr. Block received a B.A. Political Science; Masters Public Administration; and Ph.D. Comparative Political, Economic and Education Policy specializing in international education development theory from the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Block has authored several articles in professional journals and books. He was a Visiting Scholar at Northwestern University’s Program of African Studies; Graduate Adjunct Faculty at: University of St. Thomas; National-Louis University; Spertus College and has lectured at universities across the United States and abroad. 

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Marvin Slaughter

Marvin Slaughter, a UIC alumnus who was raised in Markham, Illinois, is a fervent advocate for UIC students. He’s a senior portfolio manager at the University of Chicago’s Inclusive Economy Lab, the chairman of the Illinois African Descent-Citizens Reparations Commission, and a member of the UIC Alumni Board advocacy committee. He also researches and publishes on topics of economic stratification, intergenerational mobility and preparatory justice. He is specifically interested in the role of higher education in ameliorating the racial wealth gap, with a particular interest in wealth accumulation and upward social mobility for Black Americans. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics, with honors, from UIC and holds a master’s degree in public policy with certificates in policy analysis and municipal finance from the University of CChicago Harris School of Public Policy.

Marvin Slaughter is a Senior Portfolio Manager in the Inclusive Economy Lab working on the City Colleges of Chicago portfolio of projects.  Prior to joining the Inclusive Economy Lab, he worked as the Interim Director at the African American Leadership and Policy Institute.

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Chlece Walker-Neal-Murray

Chlece Walker-Neal-Murray is a passionate Chicago transplant with roots in Bronx, New York, Ohio and Maine. She made her way to Chicago in 2009 to pursue her law degree. Today, she stands as a licensed attorney and the dedicated Executive Director and co-founder of Chicago Advocate Legal, NFP, a not-for-profit law firm situated in Chicago's Loop. Her firm focuses on housing, family matters, DCFS appeals, and the Preventive Law Initiative, which she developed in 2017.

Chlece's mission with Chicago Advocate Legal, NFP is to provide community education on psychosocial-legal issues and systems, and to offer flat-fee income-based legal services to those who cannot afford more traditional legal fees and lack assistance through legal aid.

Apart from her impressive work in law, Chlece is also deeply involved in research. She serves as a research assistant on child trafficking issues at the Center for the Human Rights of Children at Loyola University Chicago School of Law and the Jane Addams Center for Social Policy and Research.

Her dedication to education extends further as an adjunct professor at Loyola's law school in the Masters of Jurisprudence program. Chlece's educational achievements are noteworthy, holding an MSW and MS in Computer Science Software Engineering, and currently pursuing her PhD in Social Work at the University of Illinois-Chicago Jane Adams College of Social Work. Chlece  joined the board of AALPI in 2021.

In addition to her professional pursuits, Chlece cherishes an interdisciplinary approach to advocacy. She values discovering innovative ways to solve problems and is committed to showing people their importance and purpose through advocacy and education.

Recognitions have followed Chlece's exceptional work. In 2021 she was awarded the Public Intrest Award by Loyola University Chicago School of law. In 2022, she was honored with the Illinois Young Lawyer of the Year award, and in 2023, she received the prestigious inaugural Smokeball-beacon-award Beacon Award.

Beyond her accomplishments, Chlece is a loving wife and a devoted mother. Her passion for making a positive impact in people's lives shines through every aspect of her work and personal life.

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William Lowry

William Lowry is Special Assistant to the President for The Chicago Community Trust. Bill Lowry has been a member of several boards including the Donor’s Forum of Chicago, United Way/Crusade of Mercy, Illinois Issues, the Chicagoland Project with Industry, Boys and Girls Club of Chicago, United Charities of Chicago and Lake Forest College. He previously was the senior advisor to the president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, serving as the main Foundation representative to City of Chicago officials and to Chicago nonprofits. Though he joined MacArthur in 1994 as vice president of human resources and administration, his association with the Foundation began in 1993 as a human resources consultant, when he was also chief operating officer at James H. Lowry & Associates, a management consulting firm. Mr. Lowry he hosted the Emmy and Peabody award-winning television show Opportunity Line, a weekly 30-minute program on employment issues on WBBM-TV/CBS2. He was director of personnel and recruitment at Inland Steel Industries. Mr. Lowry has served on the boards of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and the Children’s Home and Aid Society of Illinois. He is a trustee of Kenyon College and a member of the Chinese American Service League’s Advisory Council. Mayor Richard M. Daley appointed him chair of the City/County Task Force on Welfare Reform in 1996, a position he held until 2000. He earned his Master’s degree from Loyola University of Chicago.

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Dr. Clinton Boyd Jr.

For over a decade, Dr. Boyd has utilized evidence to ensure policies and institutions value fathers as assets to their children, families, and communities. His research primarily examines how the life course events of African American men shape their experiences as fathers. As a National Home Visiting Resource Center Advisory Committee member, Dr. Boyd is also helping to establish national standards for effectively engaging African American fathers in home visiting programs. Dr. Boyd has co-authored several articles, book chapters, and policy reports on his work with African American fathers. His broader research interests focus on urban sociology, African American history, race and ethnicity, and inequality. Dr. Boyd earned his Ph.D. in sociology at Georgia State University, while receiving support from the Doris Duke Fellowship for the Promotion of Child Well-Being and ZERO TO THREE Fellowship. Dr. Boyd is currently a Postdoctoral Associate in the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University.