Chicago Citizens Working To Make A Difference

At ChicagoREgen.com, it is one of our goals to bring to the forefront the efforts of both individuals and groups for positive action.  Below is a list of people outside of our own organization we’d like to tip our hats off to!

Know of a Chicago citizen doing wonderful things in the world of sustainability?  Click here to tell us about them!

Erika Allen is Chicago Projects Manager for Growing Power, a nationally acclaimed non-profit organization and land trust providing equal access to healthy, high-quality, safe, and affordable food, especially in disadvantaged communities.  She helps food producers of limited resources strengthen their farm businesses and work in partnerships to create healthy and diverse food options in inner city and rural communities.

Martha Boyd is Program Director of Angelic Organics Urban Initiative.  She apprenticed on a Biodynamic CSA near Ann Arbor in 1989.  Since then, she has practiced urban farming and community building in Minneapolis, Santa Cruz, Boston, Chicago, and Guatemala.  She arrived in Chicago from a masters program in land restoration, public health, and environmental justice at UW-Madison. She is passionate about grounding self-reliant communities in and around their ecological infrastructure.

Kathleen E. Dickhut is a Deputy Commissioner of the Sustainable Development Division of the Chicago Department of Zoning and Land Use Planning, responsible for public open space planning and acquisitions and sustainable program and policy development. She is involved in Chicago Eat Local Live Healthy Plan, Green Urban Design Framework Plan and Neighborspace.

Milton Dixon is a musician, educator, fermenter, forager and a Permaculturist.  He teaches permaculture through with Midwest Permaculture, is an active member of Transition Rogers Park, is a main contributor to ChicagoREgen.com and is putting efforts towards building an urban farm.  Milton lives in a Rogers Park cooperative with his wife, Rebecca and two cats.

Ken Dunn is the Program Director of The Resource Center.  The Resource Center’s mission is to encourage material sustainability and social equity through a cluster of programs that integrate the rescue of resources typically wasted in the urban environment, focusing on locally grown food, productive employment and the conservation of materials.  The Resource Center runs several programs, including Cabrini Green’s City Farm.

Doug Farr is founder and president of Farr Associates, a Chicago-based sustainable architecture and planning firm that is the first in the world to design three buildings certified as “platinum,” the highest distinction under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System. He is author of “Sustainable Urbanism: Urban Design with Nature.”

Sharon Feigon is the CEO of I-GO Car Sharing.  While growing the car sharing market is an important objective for I-GO, it is only one part of a larger and more important goal: the development of a robust, regional, sustainable mobility system in the Chicago area. I-GO promotes walking, bicycling, public transit, and finally car sharing for trips that are not feasible using the other options.

Joey Feinstein is the founder of Climate Cycle , a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, was founded in 2008 out of a concern that today’s youth lacked the tools necessary to respond to global warming or benefit from the emerging green economy. Today, Climate Cycle leads the charge in catalyzing environmental education in the classroom and in our communities by developing young leaders in sustainability.

Ben Helphand is the Executive Director of Neighborhood Space and is on the board of Friends of Bloomingdale Trail.  NeighborSpace is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to acquire and support the community based management of small parks, gardens, natural areas, river edges, and scenic landscapes in the City of Chicago for preservation, conservation, and educational public open space purposes.

Debbie Hillman is Chairperson of the Evanston Food Policy Council, the parent organization of The Talking Farm (an urban farm and educational organization serving northern Cook County).  After a 25-year gardening career, Debbie retired in 2006 to work full time on developing healthy farm and food economies and is currently consulting on sustainable food systems and civic engagement.

Sarah Elizabeth Ippel is founder and Director of the Academy for Global Citizenship, a Chicago Public Contract School, committed to empowering students to positively impact the community and world beyond.  The school’s environment stewardship has earned her a spot as one of Chicago Magazine’s 2010 Green Award recipients.

Pete Kadens in the Co-Founder and President of SoCore Energy, a solar solutions company headquartered in Chicago.  The University of Illinois school system, the City of Evanston, the City of Naperville and  others have selected SoCore because of their depth of knowledge and experience in the solar and finance industries, as well as their promise to deliver legendary customer service and project execution at a fair price.

Seneca Kern is the co-founder of We Farm America, a social enterprise focused on self-sustainability, effective resource allocation and open source curriculum/programming.  WeFarm looks to help re-energize the food movement with the most local, organic, and sustainable food possible: your own.

Nathan Kipnis, AIA, LEED AP is the principal of Nathan Kipnis Architects, Inc.  He was honored with the 2007 Environmental Stewardship Award from the City of Evanston and recently was awarded ‘Home of the Decade’ from Natural Home Magazine for the Sturgeon Bay Vacation Home.  He is currently the co-chair for the Renewable Energy Task Force for Citizens’ Greener Evanston, and has been leading the effort towards bringing an offshore wind farm off of Evanston’s shoreline.

Karen Lehman is the director of Fresh Taste, a collaborative formed to advance the growth of diverse local agriculture and healthy eating in Chicago and across Illinois. Fresh Taste partners are committed to changing the manner in which food is produced, distributed, and consumed in Illinois.  Lehman’s food system work spans three decades, beginning with an award-winning PBS documentary on women’s leadership in farm movements.

Howard Lerner is an experienced attorney and the Executive Director of the Environmental Law and Policy Center.  The Environmental Law & Policy Center is the Midwest’s leading public interest environmental legal advocacy and eco-business innovation organization. They develop and lead successful strategic environmental advocacy campaigns to improve environmental quality and protect our natural heritage.

Dan McGowan is President of the Big Bowl & Big Bowl Chinese Express Division.  It was his green initiatives in his restaurants that earned him a 2010 Chicago Magazine Green Award.  McGowan says. “If I can do things in my company to represent what I think is right and good, then that business is going to make a difference. And if other businesses do a couple of things—not a lot—then little by little, we can make changes.”

Suzanne Malec-McKenna is the Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Environment.  Malec-McKenna has served for nearly 14 years in the Department of Environment most recently as Deputy Commissioner of Natural Resources and Water Quality. Prior to joining City government she worked as an Urban Forestry Manager for the Openlands Project.

Peter Nicholson is Executive Director of the Foresight Design Initiative, a nonprofit organization he established in 2002, and Principal of the organization’s design practice. Through these positions, he leads a multifaceted career focused on the creative pursuit of greater social, environmental and economic sustainability. Peter consults on and undertakes innovative sustainable design projects for a diversity of clients, including government agencies, institutional nonprofits, and diverse businesses.

Michael P. Polsky, founder, president, and CEO of Invenergy LLC, has nearly 30 years of experience in the energy industry. He is widely recognized as a pioneer and an industry leader in cogeneration and independent power project development.  Invenergy LLC is company that develops, owns, and operates large-scale electricity generation assets in the North American and European energy markets. He is chairman of the Polsky Center’s Advisory Board and serves on the Chicago Booth Advisory Council.

Harry Rhodes is the Executive Director of Growing Home.  He initiated the first year of growing organic food and training people in 2002, and has overseen the growth of the organization, helping it become a model transitional job program concentrating on urban agriculture. He has a Master’s Degree in Public Policy and Administration from the University of Wisconsin.

Pamela Richart launched Transition Rogers Park with friend Cynthia Kasper.  Transition Rogers Park is a local initiative with the mission of confronting climate change, peak oil and today’s economy by bringing together the heart, hands and heads of the friends and neighbors of Rogers Park. They hope to bridge the barriers that exist in the community around race, class, ethnicity and age while building a town that meets the needs of its residents to the extent possible through local, low-energy initiatives.

Daniel Rosenthal is helping green Chicago’s restaurants with the Green Chicago Restaurant Co-op, an organization committed to providing professional procurement services in support of increasing the type and volume of sustainable products  and services purchased by restaurants and other businesses in the Chicago area.

Craig Sieben is the President and Founder of Sieben Energy Associates (SEA), a national firm headquartered in Chicago, IL.  SEA is an integrated energy and sustainability services firm delivering solutions for the built environment.  He is a widely-respected energy efficiency expert and leader of the modern, rapidly-growing field of professional energy management that he helped pioneer more than two decades ago.

Jim Slama is the founder and president of FamilyFarmed.org, which encourages the production, marketing and distribution of locally grown and responsibly produced food and goods. FamilyFarmed.org expands the market for local farmers and food producers, by advancing the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) movement, supporting farmers markets, and playing an integral role in public policy in the state and region.

Kathy Tholin is the CEO of Chicago Neighborhood Technology (CNT).  Founded in 1978, the Center for Neighborhood Technology has been a leader in promoting more livable and sustainable urban communities.  Some of their ventures include I-GO Car Sharing and CNT Energy.

Bill Wilson is a communitarian (study of how communities really work), permaculturist, life student & educator and holds two Permaculture Design Course Certifications as well as an Advanced Permaculture Training Certificate.  He is the co-founder of Midwest Permaculture, along with his wife, Rebecca.

Sundee Wislow is the Sustainability Director for US Equities Realty, co-developers of The Chicago French Market.  She supports U.S. Equities staff in providing environmentally sound real estate services and coordinates portfolio wide sustainable building management and energy efficient initiatives and helps clients identify and improve the environmental impact of commercial properties.

Angela Mason is Director of Community Gardening at the Chicago Botanic Garden. She oversees Windy City Harvest, a certificate program in sustainable urban agriculture delivered with Daley College; the Cook County Boot Camp garden training and transitional employment program; the Native Seed Farming project in Bridgeport; and Green Youth Farm, a youth leadership development program that trains and employs teens in organic method growing, community health advocacy,and entrepreneurship. Read about the programs that Angie and her staff run at http://www.chicagobotanic.org/community/index.php

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