Leadership Circle
Aaron Arnold
Executive Director​​​​​
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"There is no change without a dream as there is no dream without hope."
-Paulo Freire
Laura Rios
Program Director​
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"Where there’s a will, there’s a way."
-My 7th Grade Reading Teacher
Jackie Lopez
College Readiness Advisor, 8th Grade
Middle School Team Lead​​​
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"I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it."
-Maya Angelou.
Noemi Garcia
College Readiness Advisor, 9th Grade
High School Team Lead​​​
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"I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul." -William Ernest Henley
Joseph Young
College Persistence Manager
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“If you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far go together.”
Translated African Proverb
Jesus Martinez
Operations Manager
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“Be curious, not judgmental."
-Ted Lasso
Programs
Tyshun Robinson
Student Experience Coordinator
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"Hope if it looks impossible, have Faith when it appears inconceivable, Believe the unthinkable."
-Tyshun Robinson
Matthew Hixon
College Readiness Advisor, AAMI/Middle School
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"Life is a game, you are either playing the game or being played."
-Matthew Hixon
Gaby Nevarez
Community Engagement Coordinator
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“It always seems impossible until it’s done.”
-Nelson Mandela
Laura Garcia
College Readiness Advisor, 5th & 6th Grade
Tutoring Coordinator
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"If all else fails, at least I can say I tried."
-Laura Garcia
Estrella Ortiz
College Readiness Advisor, 7th Grade
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"You are exactly where you need to be to become exactly who you are supposed to become."
-C. Robert Cargill
Ashley Rodriguez
College Readiness Advisor, 10th Grade
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"People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
-Maya Angelou​
Victoria Velazquez
College Access Advisor, 11th Grade
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“Where there’s hope, there’s life. It fills us with fresh courage and makes us strong again.”
-Anne Frank
Mayra Perez
College Access Advisor, 12th Grade
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“Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart.”
-Winnie the Pooh
Willie Brown
College Persistence Advisor​
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"A warm smile is the universal language of kindness."
-William Aurther Ward
Marketing, Communications, and Development
Angie Sage
Individual Giving Manager
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"The problem isn’t the problem, the problem is your attitude about the problem."
-Jack Sparrow (Pirates of the Caribbean)
Jared Verdejo
Marketing and Communications Specialist
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"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up."
-Pablo Picasso
Board of Directors
OFFICERS
Steve Rice
President
Lake County State's Attorney's Office
Valerie Lopez Finn
Treasurer
Retired/Accenture
Gilberto Colin
Vice President​
Abbvie
Kim Furrer Lenzini
Secretary
Jackson Buckley & Pfanenstiel LLP
MEMBERS
Karen Papp
Retired (Takeda)
Najet Torres
Parent Board Representative, Self-Employed
Walter Calhoun
Retired
Jennessa Lystlund
Amgen
Pat Ludwig
Retired (Takeda)
Kristen Malecki
Professor, UIC School of Public Health
Claudia Phalen
First Bank of Highland Park
Gala Torres
Alumni Board Representative, Grayslake Dental Clinic
John Malecki
Founder, John Malecki Media