Board and Staff

Daniel O. Ash is president of the Field Foundation of Illinois, where he is responsible for collaborating with the Board and staff to help Field achieve its mission—centering racial equity to achieve community empowerment through Art, Justice, Media & Storytelling, and Leadership Investment. Annually, the Foundation, along with its strategic funding partners, distributes more than $4 million in grants to organizations working to address systemic issues in Chicago's divested communities.

Prior to being appointed president at Field, Daniel served as associate vice president of Community Impact for The Chicago Community Trust, where he was responsible for creating the Building Collective Power strategy to help advance equitable neighborhoods within under-invested communities through grant-making to community organizing, storytelling, and resident-driven initiatives.

Previously, Daniel served as the Trust’s chief marketing officer with responsibility for directing brand strategy and communications, and for spearheading the development of On the Table, an ongoing civic engagement and dialogue platform designed to center and amplify resident voices and create greater civic connectedness across the Chicago region.

Before joining the Trust, Daniel spent 10 years as vice president of Chicago Public Media, production home of WBEZ/91.5FM (Chicago’s primary NPR station), This American Life, Sound Opinions, Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me and Vocalo.org. In this role, he was responsible for the organization’s two largest revenue categories—corporate sponsorship and individual giving—and led double-digit growth during his tenure. Additionally, he oversaw marketing and strategic partnership. He was a key voice in shaping Chicago Public Media’s overall strategic focus.

Daniel’s professional career has been focused on developing and using marketing and communication tools to advance social causes. He has worked exclusively in the nonprofit sector on issues including poverty, adolescent health, and HIV/AIDS care and prevention. The early stage of Daniel’s professional career included leadership roles at Shriver Center on Poverty Law, Chicago Department of Public Health, Center for Family Policy and Practice, and the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health.

Daniel earned a M.P.P. from the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, and a B.A. in Economics from Oberlin College. He also completed a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship at Princeton University.

As the Arts Program Officer, and former Field Fellow, Richard (they/he) supports organizations, cooperatives, collectives and artists leading projects in historically and systemically divested communities of Chicago.

Richard grew up in Uptown, right off Chicago’s Argyle Redline stop where Vietnamese migrants settled as they formed new diasporic communities. It was at their parents’ restaurant on Argyle where preschooler Richard witnessed the most beautiful artistic social practice they could imagine—the power and prowess of community members in action, doing their best to hustle through the innumerable social and systemic ills working against them and their loved ones.

Through community-led efforts, Richard studied Visual Arts at Oberlin College with support from the Posse Foundation and completed their graduate studies at the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration. Richard is a former Lane Tech Ceramic Studio whiz-kid, a Marwen student alum, and a proud product of Uptown’s Multicultural Youth Project. Richard’s artwork has been featured in exhibitions and publications, and they have participated in artist residencies in New York City and Ghana.

Contact: rtran@fieldfoundation.org

As Chief Operating Officer Mark Murray manages the foundation’s support for community, civic, and cultural organizations. Mark has worked on issues ranging from establishing community schools to programs that support violence prevention. He manages a team of grant makers that are dedicated to working with and in Chicago communities to tackle some of the city’s most pressing needs.

Maudlyne Ihejirika is the Field Foundation's Media & Storytelling Program Manager and is responsible for supporting the foundation’s work in seeking to change how news production and storytelling reflect Chicago—and in creating a more equitable, connected, and inclusive local media ecosystem in which the stories of all Chicagoans are told accurately, fairly, authoritatively, and contextually.

Prior to joining Field, Maudlyne spent 29 years with the Chicago Sun-Times, where she was an award-winning reporter and columnist, served as assistant city editor, and covered beats from crime and the inner city to housing and education, politics, and philanthropy. She also wrote “Chicago Chronicles”—long-form columns of diverse and untold narratives focusing on racial, social, and economic justice issues impacting Black and Brown communities.

Maudlyne is Immediate Past President of both the Chicago Journalists Association and the National Association of Black Journalists Chicago Chapter. She is also the author of "Escape From Nigeria: A Memoir of Faith, Love and War" (Africa World Press, 2016)—a riveting tale of her family's survival of the brutal Nigerian-Biafran War and miracles that brought them to the US as refugees.

Maudlyne holds an M.S.J. from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, and a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Iowa. She is also a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

As the Justice Senior Program Officer, Angelica Chavez works with organizations who address root causes of inequity and problems at a systemic and policy level. Angelica was born and raised in the East Side neighborhood of Chicago, where she attended Chicago Public Schools and later graduated from Columbia College Chicago with a degree in journalism. She has spent her career organizing across community groups and within nonprofits with a focus on education and health initiatives. Prior to joining The Field Foundation, she worked as a community engagement organizer for Advance Illinois, an education policy organization, where she partnered with multiple constituencies across the state advancing high-quality education practices for all students. She attributes her experiences and opportunities to her parents who immigrated from Mexico and El Salvador and instilled deep-rooted values centered in social justice and civic engagement.

Contact: achavez@fieldfoundation.org

Zoe Magierek was the Manager of Knowledge Service at Forefront and has worked as a Librarian in special, academic and medical libraries. She actively volunteers with children and animals and serves as the Vice-Chair of the LTA Program Advisory Board at Wright College. She has a bachelor’s in sociology from the University of Chicago and a master’s degree in library science from Dominican University.

analía rodríguez (they/them/elle) is a longtime community organizer and immediate former executive director of the Latino Union of Chicago, a grassroots community organization that fights wage theft and advocates for improved temporary worker conditions. They live in Little Village. In their role as Leadership Investment Program Officer at Field, rodríguez (who does not capitalize their name) will be primarily responsible for managing Field’s signature Leaders for a New Chicago program, an innovative partnership between Field and MacArthur Foundations that recognizes past accomplishments and promotes leaders and their organizations, and whose influence informs decision-making in Chicago.

Contact: arodriguez@fieldfoundation.org

Patrick Gallagher Landes (he/they/she) is an arts administrator, photographer, and theater artist who is currently in graduate school for Public Policy at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy. Patrick has worked with Chicago Abortion Fund, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, National Alliance of Community Economic Development Associations, as well as a plethora of theater companies in the Washington, D.C., area to make the world a more equitable and cultural place.

Patrick is excited to be working with the Field Foundation to explore equitable practices in funding for Art, Justice, Media & Storytelling, and Leadership Investment!

Rupal Paliwal is a graduate student at the University of Chicago, studying policy and social administration. She is also a graduate of the University of California, San Diego, with a B.S. in Economics and Mathematics. Her previous work experience includes program management, donor relationship management, policy analysis, mental health outreach, event management, and social media marketing. She is passionate about using the power of philanthropy as a catalyst to drive transformative change in society. Feeding her love for social work, she has also volunteered at a daycare center in Costa Rica to offer supportive care to children who got little to no attention at home, and as a volunteer at People for Animals in India to help and protect animals in need.

Currently, Gloria Castillo is the Board Chair for the Field Foundation of Illinois. She is president and CEO of Chicago United, a corporate membership organization that advances multiracial leadership in business to achieve parity in economic opportunity for people of color.

Castillo is a pioneering advocate for workplace diversity with a passion for advancing inclusion, and social and economic justice through the lens of business strategy. Her experience and background have allowed her to effectively collaborate with Chicago United’s corporate members to enhance inclusive talent management practices and develop strategic and dynamic partnerships with minority owned business enterprises. Her work on behalf of underrepresented populations was recognized in 2017 with an honorary Doctorate in Social Justice from Roosevelt University.

Lyle Logan is the Managing Director of the Global Financial Institutions Group and also Chairman and CEO of The Northern Trust International Banking Corporation. From 2005 – 2009 he was the Managing Director, Institutional Sales and Client Servicing for Northern Trust Global Investments (the asset management arm of Northern Trust Corporation). As Managing Director, he oversaw the growth and development of the NTGI Institutional Sales and Client Servicing business unit. Previously he was Senior Vice President and Head of Chicago Private Banking within Personal Financial Services. Logan joined Northern Trust in April 2000 as a Senior Vice President in Personal Financial Services—Midwest. As part of the management team, he oversaw the business unit’s growth strategies and focused on the development and marketing of Northern Trust’s array of services to current and prospective clients. Logan has been closely involved in a wide range of marketing and product development activities throughout PFS and most recently oversaw the marketing area of the PFS business unit.

Cathy J. Cohen is the David and Mary Winton Green Professor of Political Science and former chair of the department. She has served as the Deputy Provost for Graduate Education and is the former Director of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago. Cohen is the author of two books: Democracy Remixed: Black Youth and the Future of American Politics (Oxford University Press 2010) and The Boundaries of Blackness: AIDS and the Breakdown of Black Politics (University of Chicago Press 1999) and co-editor with Kathleen Jones and Joan Tronto of Women Transforming Politics: An Alternative Reader (NYU, 1997). Her work has been published in numerous journals and edited volumes including the American Political Science Review, GLQ, NOMOS, and Social Text. Cohen is principal investigator of two major projects: The Black Youth Project and the Mobilization, Change and Political and Civic Engagement Project. Her general field of specialization is American politics, although her research interests include African-American politics, women and politics, lesbian and gay politics, and social movements.

Professor, Pastor and Executive Adviser, Dr. Nicholas Pearce serves as an award-winning clinical professor of management and organizations at the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management and as the founder and chief executive officer of The Vocati Group, a global executive advisory consultancy. A Chicago native and globally-recognized expert in the areas of values-driven leadership, collaboration, and change in organizations, Dr. Pearce has served as a trusted strategic adviser to leaders of corporations, social impact organizations, governments, and communities of faith on six continents. He is also an ordained minister, currently serving as Assistant Pastor of Chicago’s landmark Apostolic Church of God. Dr. Pearce is deeply committed to philanthropy & civic engagement, serving on the boards of the Chicago Children’s Museum, Access Community Health Network, the Chicago Community Trust’s African American Legacy Fund, and Seminary Co-Op Bookstores. He has been a Fellow of Leadership Greater Chicago since 2015 and has also been named one of Chicago’s 40 Game Changers (under 40) by WVON/Ariel Investments, Kellogg’s MSMS Professor of the Year (2015), a Galbraith Scholar by Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, and a Public Voices Faculty Fellow by The OpEd Project. He and his award-winning work have been featured in global media outlets including The Atlantic, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Chicago Tribune, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, CNBC, Crain’s Chicago Business, Discovery Channel, Fast Company, Forbes, Fortune, The New York Times and The Washington Post. Dr. Pearce holds the Ph.D. in Management & Organizations from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and the S.B. in Chemical Engineering & Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with a concentration in Religious Studies earned in conjunction with Harvard Divinity School.

Stephanie Field Harris serves as a Trustee of the University of Chicago Medical Center, the Terra Foundation for American Art and the Field Foundation of Illinois. She is a member of the Woman’s Board of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Founders’ Board of Children’s Memorial Hospital.

Joe Aguilar is the Chief Investment Officer for Illinois State Treasurer Michael W. Frerichs. In his role, Mr. Aguilar directs seven investment portfolios spanning public and private market investments on behalf of the Illinois Treasury’s combined $50 billion investment portfolio, including: the Illinois Growth and Innovation Fund, a $1B impact investment fund investing across venture, buyout and private credit; two 529 College Saving Plans; the State’s Achieving a Better Life Experience program; Student Innovation Investments; Infrastructure Development Account; and the Secure Choice Retirement Savings Program. As the Chief Investment Officer, Mr. Aguilar leads all aspects of investment implementation, including the development of processes and procedures, the Office’s sustainable investment strategy, and the selection of investment products and managers. He is responsible for leading the investment team and the stewardship for all investments and external public and private market investment managers, including venture, private equity, and private credit managers invested through the office’s platforms.

Mr. Aguilar was previously the Director of Investment Analysis and Due Diligence with the Illinois State Treasury, in which he led due diligence efforts, the manager selection process, assessment, and monitoring of all investment managers and co-investments. Prior to joining the Illinois Treasury, he worked for Fortaleza Asset Management.

Mr. Aguilar holds a B.S. with a double major in Finance and Business & Commerce from Aurora University and an M.S. in Finance from the University of Miami’s Herbert Business School. He also serves as an Adjunct Professor at Aurora University.

Lisa Yun Lee is a cultural activist and the Executive Director of the National Public Housing Museum. Lee is a vigorous champion of the arts and a supporter of free and civil discourse, recognizing their power to build and sustain a strong, just society. Lee has served as the Director of the UIC School of Art & Art History, where she is an Associate Professor of Art History and Gender and Women’s Studies. She was most recently the 2017 Co-Curator of Open Engagement, an arts conference based at the University of Illinois Chicago. As the previous Director of the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, Lee oversaw a renovation of the house, installed a new permanent exhibition, and reinvigorated public programming at one of the nation’s most important historic sites. Lee was the co-founder of The Public Square at the Illinois Humanities Council, an organization dedicated to creating spaces for dialogue and dissent and for reinvigorating civil society. She writes broadly about arts, culture, diversity, and aesthetics and politics, and has written a book entitled Dialectics of the Body: Corporeality in the Philosophy of Theodor Adorno (Routledge, 2004), and also wrote the survey essay for the first comprehensive monograph of Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates (Phaidon, 2015). Lee serves on the boards of the American Alliance of Museums, Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life and 3Arts.

Jamee Field Kane is a philanthropist and community volunteer who sits on various boards throughout the city, including the Field Foundation of Illinois. Kane received a B.A. from Middlebury College with a joint major in Economic and Psychology. After completing school, Kane moved to New York where she would spend four years in the investment banking world. Kane returned to Chicago to complete her M.B.A. at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management. After graduating she settled down in the city, where she does nonprofit consulting and writes for a local magazine.

Judith S. Block (Judy) has spent over 45 years volunteering in the Chicago community. She has followed her passion for the human services, in particular, child welfare. She was a director of the United Way of Chicago for over 25 years and is a past director and board chairman of the Child Welfare League of America. She has been a director and past board chairman of Chicago Child Care Society, the oldest child welfare agency in Illinois. She has also been a Court Appointed Special Advocate in the Juvenile Court (CASA).

Block is a graduate with a BS from the School of Communication (was Speech), from Northwestern University and is a life trustee of the university. She is also a member of the Women’s Board of Northwestern and past board chairman.

Block completed a ten-year term on the Executive Committee of the Chicago Community Trust and was Vice Chairman of the board. She is now a director of The Field Foundation and past board chairman. Block was the first woman chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Field Museum. She is currently a life trustee.

Other involvements include being a member and past president of Know Your Chicago. She is a life director of the Chicago Foundation for Education, member of the Antiquarians of the Art Institute of Chicago and The Old Masters Society of the Art Institute.

Oliver Nicklin founded, and is president, of First Analysis. Prior to forming First Analysis, he worked at William Blair & Co. as chief operating officer, director of research, and an investment analyst. He also founded the First Analysis Institute of Integrative Studies, a not-for-profit educational institute, which co-sponsors interdisciplinary seminars and research with universities including Loyola University Chicago, Catholic Theological Union, University of Chicago, and University of Illinois at Chicago.

In addition to serving on many corporate boards, Nicklin has served on the boards of the Field Foundation, the Regenstein Foundation, the Finance Council of the Archdiocese of Chicago, the Midwest Palliative & Hospice CareCenter, the University of Chicago Divinity School’s Visiting Committee, and the Illinois Technology Fund. He earned an M.B.A. from Harvard University and a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Texas.

Marshall Field V was born on May 13, 1941, in Charlottesville, Virginia, attended St. Albans School in Washington, D.C. and graduated from Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts. He then attended Harvard College, where he was a member of the Lampoon and had a summer internship in the editorial department of the Boston Globe. After graduating from Harvard in 1963 with a Bachelor in Fine Arts, Field worked in New York City for the book publishing firm of Random House and later joined the circulation staff of the New York Herald-Tribune.

Upon the death of his father in 1965, Field entered the family business, Field Enterprises, Inc., in Chicago. In October, 1969, he was elected Publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Daily News, both of which were owned by Field Enterprises. He was 28 years old, the youngest publisher of any major newspaper in the United States. He remained Publisher until 1980. In 1972, Field became Chairman of Field Enterprises, a post he held until the company was dissolved 12 years later. Field is also Chairman and President of The Old Mountain Company, Inc. which manages his private investments.

George A. Ranney has been a Field Foundation board member since 1978. He has also served on the boards of the MacArthur, Spencer, Arthur M. Brazier and Liberty Prairie Foundations, as well as the board of the University of Chicago, the Conservation Fund, the Metropolitan Planning Council, and the Center for Humans and Nature.

He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1962, and from the University of Chicago Law School in 1966, where he was Editor-in Chief of the Law Review. After working for the Chicago Legal Aid Bureau Ranney became Deputy Director of the Illinois Budget Bureau under Governor Richard Ogilvie, where he was responsible for legislation behind the Budget Bureau, the Illinois Income Tax and the Regional Transportation Authority.

Rita Fry is an accomplished lawyer and consultant who earned her J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law in 1979. Fry joined the Cook County Office of Public Defense in 1980 and served as an assistant public defender until 1986, when she would leave briefly to work for the Chicago Law Department. In 1988, Fry returned as the first woman head of the Public Defender's Office, where she stayed until she retired in 2003. She then openend RAF Consulting, which provides expertise in housing, criminal justice issues, and government relations and incorporates strategic planning to address community needs and available resources for nonprofit organizations. Fry remains the president of RAF Consulting today.