Our Staff
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Patricia Rivera, LCSW
Founder Patricia is the founder of Chicago HOPES for Kids, a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization that provides academic support and literacy mentoring for children living in Chicago’s homeless shelters. She has a Master of Social Work Degree from the Jane Addams College of Social Work, Chicago, Illinois. She retired in 2010, after 33 years as a school social worker for Chicago Public Schools (CPS), with the last 7 years as the administrator for the CPS Homeless Education Program. After she retired and CPS cut the funding for the shelter-based tutoring program, she and a group of dedicated volunteers founded Chicago HOPES for Kids. She served as the Executive Director of Chicago HOPES for Kids for 8 years before her retirement. She continues to volunteer with HOPES and also enjoys learning the harp, planting and harvesting at her sister's farm in Indiana, and spending time with her grandchildren.
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Rita Kahn
Executive Director Rita Kahn serves as Executive Director at Chicago HOPES for Kids and came to the organization five years ago as Development Manager. She brings a variety of skills and experiences to her position including a teaching background, human resources and marketing leadership. Rita LOVES going to school. She received her Master’s in Education from Dominican University in 2010 and her Master’s in Labor Industrial Relations from Michigan State University in 1996. Before joining HOPES, Rita served as the Development Manager for Oak Park River Food Pantry where she increased community awareness of childhood food insecurity and raised funds to launch the community’s first summer meals program for at-risk youth. She also taught at Reavis High School and was dedicated to helping students in the alternative education program meet graduation requirements. At Chicago HOPES for Kids, she is honored to work with such a talented and passionate staff and looks forward to developing more high- quality programs enabling students experiencing homelessness to reach their potential.
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Erica Walker, MA, LCSW
Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Program Director Erica joined Chicago HOPES for Kids in 2018, bringing two decades of experience in education, social service and commitment to the empowerment of youth, families and vulnerable communities. A native of Chicago's South Side with lived experiences of poverty and housing instability, Erica holds a bachelor's degree from Harvard University with honors in African American Studies. She also holds a master's degree in clinical social work from the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice and is a licensed clinical social worker in the state of Illinois. Erica is an avid bibliophile, jewelry designer and cyclist, and is active in several community service capacities in Chicago, including the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs and Chicago Public Schools.
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Mel Whitehouse
Program Manager: K-5th Programs Mel first joined Chicago HOPES for Kids as a Site Coordinator, where after a year and a half of read-aloud books, enrichment activities, field trips, and one flourishing program room sweet potato plant, she decided that she wanted to be able to devote more energy to HOPES and became an Americorps Member. During her year of Americorps service, her biggest project was launching a new, more expandable model for our Middle School Aged Program. Now, as Program Administrator, she manages our Americorps program and supports Site Coordinators so that we can continue to provide the most creative, intentional, and impactful programming for our students. When she's not at HOPES Mel likes to create pottery, play board games and swim.
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Alex Kirchner
Development Manager Alex was first introduced to HOPES as a volunteer in 2016, when she volunteered at SRHAC in Austin, and later at Primo-Homan in North Lawndale. She developed a passion for advocacy and service in under resourced Chicago communities while continuing to learn about the issue of family homelessness. After her graduation from Wheaton College with a Bachelors’ in International Relations, she committed to a year of service with HOPES as an AmeriCorps VISTA member. Throughout the year she grew her interest and skill in nonprofit development, events management, and grant writing and helped with projects like the Seeds of HOPE Gala and Lincoln Park Zoo field trip. After a stint as Development & Communications Coordinator with Gads Hill Center, Alex returned to HOPES to pursue her passion of advocating for children experiencing homelessness as Development Administrator. Her role includes fundraising campaigns, communications, grant writing, marathon team management, and event planning. In 2021, Alex was promoted to Development Manager. In her free time she enjoys reading, cooking new recipes, horseback riding, and long road trips.
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Alex Galván
Program Manager: Literacy Leaders Originally from the Scottsdale neighborhood on the Southwest side of Chicago, Alex Galván graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in December of 2017 where she studied Educational Policy and Spanish. Alex first joined HOPES in March of 2018 where she served as an AmeriCorps state and National until May of 2019. During her time as an AmeriCorps, Alex helped spearhead several resource fairs and worked to develop our parent program, amongst other outreach efforts. After her term of service, Alex joined the HOPES Associate Board and moved on to work for the Schuler Scholar Program as an Educational Counselor at Gwendolyn Brooks High School. Her passion for working with families experiencing homelessness, as well as her commitment to the HOPES mission, drew her back to HOPES as a full time staff member. After a year as the Outreach and Family Engagement Administrator, Alex has moved into the Program Manager Role where she hopes to expand HOPES Literacy Leaders programming to each of our partner shelters. Alex is a second year graduate student at The University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice. Her favorite donut place in Chicago is Old Fashioned Donuts in the Roseland neighborhood.
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Jen Harden-Finn
Volunteer Manager Jen loves building relationships and has a passion for community volunteerism and education. She brings many years of community outreach, team-building, and marketing experience to the organization from her work with public schools, small businesses in the Austin neighborhood, and large organizations including Shell, BP, and McDonald's. As the daughter of a retired Chicago Public School teacher who taught for over 40 years in the Chinatown and North Lawndale neighborhoods, Jen realized at an early age the importance of educational support outside the home. She is excited to be part of the Chicago HOPES for Kids team as the Volunteer Manager and is looking forward to inspiring and encouraging others to donate their time.
Jen received her BA in Journalism from Northern Illinois University and her MS in Integrated Marketing from Roosevelt University. In her free time, Jen is a board member for ProMusica Youth Chorus in Oak Park and enjoys traveling. |
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Deborah Perez
Outreach & Family Engagement Administrator Deb joined Chicago HOPES at the start of 2021 as an AmeriCorps Program Coordinator. During her term of service she led engagement efforts at family shelters, planned field trips, built relationships with parents and dived deeper into community service. Deb comes to HOPES with ten years of experience working with youth and families through various non profits. In her previous roles she created sustainable program partnerships, fundraised for mural art projects, met with many community stakeholders and coordinated organization wide events for youth and families. She is a program visionary, creative and passionate about all things youth and family. Outside of work she serves as a member of the local school council at her kids school, leads a small women's leadership group and is currently in school pursuing a degree in Human Development and Family Studies. In her free time she enjoys rollerblading, exploring public art, cooking and spending time with her family at home.
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Our Executive Board
Tonya Rice, Board President- Executive Committee
Leader, US Elections, Amazon Web Services |
Rita Winiecki, Board Vice President
Brand Marketing and Account Manager, BigMarker |
Andy Flynn, Board Treasurer - Executive Board
CFA, Portfolio Manager on the William Blair Global Leaders and International Small Cap Growth strategies |
Kate O'Connell, Board Secretary
Attorney, Morse, Buldoc, and Dinos, LLC |
Pat Rivera, Board Member - Governance Committee
Founder, Retired Social Worker |
Lucretia Jackson, Board Member - Program Committee
Therapist, Thresholds |
Philip Montgomery, Board Member - Program Committee
Therapist, Thresholds |
Matt Eddington, Board Member
Assistant Counsel, Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs |
Sarah Korf, Board Member - Fundraising Committee
Management Consultant, Gartner |
Frieda Holley, Board Member
Not-for-profit Manager, CHFK Site Coordinator, Central American Martyrs Board Member |
Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, Board Member - Fundraising Committee
Professor, Northwestern University |
Amy Anthony, Board Member
Strategy and Analytics, Salesforce |
Sonya Teague Kingsley, Board Member
Chief Administrative Law Judge, Illinois Commerce Commission |
