Phillip Bahar is Executive Director of the Chicago Humanities Festival and holds Board and advisory positions with Arts Alliance Illinois and American Alliance of Museums. Prior to joining the Festival he was Chief of Operations and Administration at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.

Lewis Collens served as president of the Illinois Institute of Technology for seventeen years and, prior to that, was dean of the Chicago-Kent College of Law. Mr. Collens has also served in leadership roles for The Partnership for New Communities, Leadership Greater Chicago, and The Economic Club of Chicago.

Karen “Kiki” Connell is an interdisciplinary artist and Creative Director of an agency that does event design, branding, motion graphics, and set design. She has an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design where she studied video, painting and installation. Her art work has been widely published in books and magazines, including Architectural Digest, House Beautiful and Elle Decor and has appeared in movies and television shows. She has had exhibits in museums in the U.S. and Ireland.

Jan Feldman is Executive Director of Lawyers for the Creative Arts whose 1800 lawyers provide pro bono assistance to clients in all areas of the arts. Mr. Feldman has been board president of non-profit arts boards, including the People's Music School, Arts Bridge and Mostly Music Chicago.

Reshorna M. Fitzpatrick is the Executive Pastor of the Stone Temple Church in Chicago’s North Lawndale. She chairs a committee of organizations working to beautify neighborhoods and expand opportunities through entrepreneurship, education, social and environmental engagement. She serves on the boards of Faith in Place, a non-profit environmental organization that works with houses of worship across Illinois and I Am Able, a non-profit family counseling center. Reshorna and her husband, Bishop Derrick Fitzpatrick, were acknowledged in Time Magazine as 2020 Heroes for their intensified support to the North Lawndale Community.

Capers C. Funnye, Jr., serves as rabbi for Beth Shalom B'nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation of Chicago, one of the largest black synagogues in America, and is Chief Rabbi of the International Israelite Board of Rabbis. He has served as a consultant to The Du Sable Museum of African American History, The Chicago Historical Society, The Spertus Museum of Judaica, and the Afro-American Museum.

Derek Goldman is Chair of the Department of Performing Arts and Director of the Theater & Performance Studies Program at Georgetown University, where he holds a joint appointment in the School of Foreign Service. He is co-Founding Director of the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics. He is an award-winning international stage director, producer, festival director, playwright, adapter, developer of new work, teacher, and published scholar, whose artistic work has been seen around the country, Off-Broadway and at numerous major regional theaters, as well as around the world.

Ronald Grais is Chair of the ChiArts Foundation, which supports ChiArts, Chicago’s only tuition-free, pre-professional arts high school. For more than three decades, Ron has been active with Thresholds, Illinois’ largest provider of mental health services, including serving as president of its Board of Directors.

Gary T. Johnson, is the Board Chair of the Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield. As immediate past President of the Chicago History Museum, he focused on community outreach and building the institution’s capacity to serve its mission of sharing Chicago’s stories. Mr. Johnson has a record of leadership in civil rights and justice reform, and is a long-time member of the Radio Committee of WFMT.

Dr. Kwang-Wu Kim, is president, chief executive officer, and professor of music at Columbia College Chicago, which, with almost 7000 students, is one of the largest presenters of cultural events in Chicago.

Susan Kiphart continues the work of her partnership with her late husband, Richard Kiphart.  Together they supported and served on boards of Lyric Opera of Chicago, Poetry Foundation, WTTW, Joffrey Ballet, Columbia College, Erikson Institute, Merit School of Music, Music Institute of Chicago, Family Focus, Ingenuity, and the University of Chicago’s Center for Global Health.

Vernā Myers is vice president of inclusion strategy at Netflix, where she spearheads inclusion and equity initiatives and manages a team of inclusion experts worldwide. An inclusion strategist, cultural change catalyst, influencer, thought leader, social commentator, and author, Vernā is known for her high-energy presentations, her captivating insights, and her ability to help people bridge differences and connect more meaningfully.

Sola Olopade, M.D., pulmonologist and Dean for Academic Affairs at The University of Chicago medical school, has twice won the American College of Chest Physicians’ Humanitarian Award for his work on stemming HIV/AIDS among university students in Nigeria (2006) and for his work on protecting women and children from the hazards of exposure to indoor pollution (2016).

Eboo Patel was a member of President Barack Obama's inaugural Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships. He is an American Ismaili of Gujarati Indian heritage and founder and president of Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based international nonprofit that aims to promote interfaith cooperation.

Duane Quaini (3/30/45 - 6/7/22). An early supporter of Innovation 80, Duane was a beloved and long-time friend. He served Innovation 80 as a trusted advisor on matters of its strategic development.

John Schmidt is chair of Access Living, Chicago’s leading disability rights organization; a life trustee of the Chicago Symphony; vice chair of Cedille Records; and an officer and executive board member of the Gun Violence Prevention Action Committee. John is a partner in the law firm of Mayer Brown LLP. He served under President Clinton as Ambassador and Chief US Negotiator for the global trade negotiations that created the World Trade Organization and as the Associate Attorney General of the United States.

Phyllis N. Segal is a senior fellow at Encore.org, where she is advancing intergenerational national service as a powerful new way to meet community needs and bridge the generational divide. She co-founded and serves on the board of Eli J. and Phyllis N. Segal Citizen Leadership Program. Phyllis served in Senate-confirmed positions under Presidents Obama and Clinton, was President of the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, chaired the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and served as a Trustee of Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts.

Geoffrey Stone is a professor of law at The University of Chicago, having served previously as Dean of the law school and as Provost of the University. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the National Advisory Council of the ACLU, and has served as Chair of the Board of both the American Constitution Society and the Chicago Children’s Choir.

Paul Sznewajs is the founding Executive Director of Ingenuity, whose mission is to ensure that every student, in every grade, in every school, has access to the arts as part of a well-rounded education. Paul has nearly two decades of senior leadership experience in the nonprofit and philanthropic sector. As a fundraiser, nonprofit strategist, creative director, and arts advocate, he has been honored by the White House and is a leader in Chicago’s arts and culture sector.

Scott Turow has written eleven best-selling works of fiction which have been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than thirty million copies, and been adapted into movies and television projects. He has frequently contributed essays and op-ed pieces to publications such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic.