Our Board of Directors
Erika Dudley
Board President
Erika Dudley is the Founder and CEO of the nonprofit, AT STAKE, that is increasing equitable access, supporting the BlueGreen Economy, and stimulating community wealth. Based in Chicago with work in Brazil and São Tomé and Principe. A historian, artist, community organizer, and chef, her particular interest is the intersection of humanities, access, and food. Her academic focus (Harvard University) is French History and Italian.
At the helm of the Urban Growers Collective, Erika serves as the President of the Board of Directors, demonstrating her commitment to sustainable urban agriculture. Her influence extends to the Green Era Sustainability Board of Directors and the Healthy Chicago 2025 Food Access Work Group, showcasing her dedication to fostering positive change in the community.
Erika is an active member of various impactful organizations, including the Chicago Food Policy Action Council and the Dismantling Racism in the Food Systems training program. Her involvement in the Sunflower Project nonprofit and the Engagement Committee at Experimental Station reflects her commitment to community-driven initiatives.
Notably, Erika's leadership extends to the arts, where she pioneered the Museum Educators Program at the Smart Museum of Art, providing opportunities for Odyssey Project graduates and University of Chicago undergraduates. Her dedication to equity in the arts earned her the role of Interpreter-in-Residence at the museum in 2015-2016. Erika continues to contribute to the museum's education committee, leaving a lasting impact on the cultural landscape.
As an accomplished artist, Erika was the 2023 artist-in-residence in the Pullman neighborhood and served as an artist advisor for global exchange in Kyrgyzstan, focusing on issues of food waste and the built environment in October 2023.
Erika's commitment to the Hyde Park Art Center is extensive, having served on its Board of Directors since 2011 and currently holding the position of Chair of the Board of this 85-year old organization. Her leadership extends to various committees, including Education, Community Accountability, Development, and Anti-Racism/Equity. With a keen eye, she has been a reviewer of the Center Program for the past five years.
In the realm of the Chicago Art Department, Erika assumes the role of Vice Chair on the Board of Directors. Her involvement spans across committees such as Development, Executive, and Community (South Shore X Pilsen Arts), showcasing her dedication to fostering a vibrant arts community. Additionally, she contributes as a reviewer of the CORE Residency, emphasizing her commitment to nurturing emerging talent.
Prior to founding AT STAKE, she was a Director with the University of Chicago after joining this South Side academic institution in 2007. She was the Soul Food Dinners partner of and Culinary Lead of Diasporic Traditions with Theaster Gates’s Dorchester Projects. Before her work with this university, Erika led workforce initiatives in marginalized communities at Literacy Chicago and STRIVE. She coordinated a national organizing campaign on community safety and police accountability at the Center for Third World Organizing based in Oakland, California.
Erika Dudley's diverse and impactful contributions across academia, community engagement, and the arts underscore her dedication to creating positive change and fostering inclusivity in every facet of her work.
Margot Pritzker
Board Secretary
Margot Pritzker is chair of the Zohar Education Project Incorporated, established in 1995 to translate the Zohar, the mystical canon of Judaism, into English. This 20-year,12-volume project was completed in 2017. Oversight of this project continues today as the Zohar translation meets the digital world.
Pritzker was the founder and president of WomenOnCall.org, an online meeting place for skills-based volunteering. WomenOnCall successfully merged with Chicago Cares in 2018.
Pritzker is a Trustee of the Aspen Institute, where she chairs the Leadership Programs Committee, and is a seminar moderator for the Aspen Global Leadership Network. Margot is a member of the Board of Directors for the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and is a member of the Advisory Board of America Abroad Media.
Pritzker is a Director of the Urban Growers Collective whose mission is to support vulnerable neighborhoods by developing community-based food systems. Margot is co-founder of a startup called the Food Resource Navigator that will become a collaborative hub and useful tool for growers in the Chicago region. This exciting project has a social justice and racial equity lens and is being co-created with the communities it intends to serve.
Margot and her husband, Thomas J. Pritzker, direct The Pritzker Architecture Prize which is considered the profession’s highest honor.
Margot and Tom reside in Chicago, they have three sons and four grandchildren. Their extensive travel and knowledge of South Asia has resulted in one of the foremost collections of South Asian art. Margot holds a B.A. from Northwestern University and an M.A. from the University of Chicago.
Janelle St. John
Board Treasurer
Janelle St. John has been Growing Home’s Executive Director since 2020 after being the Chief Fund Development and Communications Officer of Growing Home for over a year.
Since her start at Growing Home, Janelle has helped form Growing Home’s essential 3-year working plan that includes initiatives geared towards deepening Growing Home’s commitment to the Englewood community. Such initiatives included increasing Growing Home’s food distribution in Englewood to 50% or more, a goal which has been achieved and surpassed in the first years with 90% distribution in Greater Englewood last year.
Prior to Growing Home, Janelle spent five years as the Chief Development and Communications Officer and later Chief Strategy Officer for Edgewater Health, a
Community Mental Health Center located in Gary, IN. She is a dynamic senior level professional with over 24 years of superior performance within the nonprofit industry. She holds a master’s degree in Public Service Administration from DePaul University and a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Chicago.
On her passion for leading this unique urban farm non-profit, Janelle shares, “Growing Home, Inc. allows me the unique opportunity to make a difference in a community that I am very passionate about. I live only blocks away from Englewood and have many family and friends who are residents of the Englewood Community. Growing Home, Inc. is in a unique position to make an impact in a community that is a designated food desert with high unemployment.”
Camille Kerr
Board Member
Camille is working to build a democratic economy in service to US social justice movements including organizations advancing Black liberation, immigrant rights, and the US labor movement. She specializes in co-op start-up development, collaborative initiatives to build solidarity economy infrastructure, cooperative governance and legal design, and policy work. In partnership with Chicago organizers, Camille helped found ChiFresh Kitchen, a worker cooperative food service contracting business which is owned and determined primarily by formerly incarcerated folks living in the south & west sides of Chicago.
Camille's board and advisory roles include: Shared Capital Cooperative, Urban Growers Collective, EG Woode, Obran Cooperative, the City of Chicago's Community Wealth Building Initiative and its Food Equity Council, the Community Food Navigator, and the the National Cooperative Business Association's Council of Cooperative Economists. Camille is also an executive fellow with the Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, where she co-directs the Project on Unions and Worker Ownership with Sanjay Pinto.
Before starting Upside Down Consulting, Camille served as the Associate Director of The ICA Group, the Director of Field Building at the Democracy at Work Institute and the Director of Research at the National Center for Employee Ownership. She has a law degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Law where she was awarded a human rights fellowship and graduated cum laude.
Norma Sanders
Board Member
Norma Sanders (nsanders@gagdc.org) serves as the Director of Special Initiatives. She began her work at GAGDC as the Smart Communities Manager for the Southwest Smart Communities Partners. She directly managed the Auburn Gresham and Chicago Lawn, two of the five digitally underserved neighborhoods, part of the City's broadband adoption initiative. Her work has expanded to overseeing the organization’s catalytic economic development initiatives, small business support and communications. She leads the Auburn Gresham Invest South/West neighborhood investment initiative and the United Way Neighborhood Network, where her team engages partners and institutions around local strategies and priorities, as outlined the Auburn Gresham community driven quality of life plan.
In her over thirteen years at GAGDC, Norma has worked on development, technology and community organizing, engaging and uplifting residents and business assets, advocating on issues related to the digital divide, access to healthy food, youth STEAM programming, and leading strategic efforts to help increase equitable access to training, jobs, reducing barriers to public and private investments and promoting patient capital. .
Ultimately, her expertise and joy is to lead the neighborhoods’ strategic journey to connect businesses and families to equitable resources that builds a level of sustainable wealth all Chicago neighborhoods need and deserve. Directing the winning 2020 inaugural Chicago Prize Always Growing Auburn Gresham team was a welcomed recognition that helped validate the work of GAGDC, its partners and greater community who collectively are working to help catalyze neighborhood and regional level change.
A native of Chicago’s South Side, Norma graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a degree in Electrical Engineering, worked as a senior director for Motorola, Inc. and has extensive experience managing cross-community and global program initiatives.
Jessi Perez
Board Member
Jessi Pérez is a people-centric professional, with experience developing and managing projects and programs for nonprofits with an inclusive lens, honoring the intersectional identities people hold. She currently works as the Associate Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Jessi's work serving non-dominant communities continues to fuel her dedication to creating sustainable equitable change in systems and organizations.
Jessi is fluent in Spanish, and has over 15 years of experience as a rape crisis counselor. She is passionate about social justice and reproductive rights and justice. In her spare time, Jessi enjoys theater, baking, playing poker, and kayaking.
