BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Our team brings a wealth of passion, youth and academia experience from some of the most distinguished schools, halls of ivy, organizations, and establishments. We each share a unified mission, to serve children and help develop their love for reading and literature.
JuDONNE HEMINGWAY
CHAIR
JuDonne Hemingway is an experienced, innovative, and adaptive systems leader who helps emerging leaders persist unapologetically in pursuit of their visions. She explores how strategic analysis, responsive practices, and values-based leadership development work together to help leaders ignite their superpowers and re-imagine what’s possible.
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JuDonne currently serves as the Managing Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusiveness Strategy and Leadership Development for Teach For America’s National Admissions team. Prior to this role JuDonne served as the Senior Managing Director of Leadership Development at Teach For America Indianapolis. In this seat she was responsible for building the capacity of over 300 beginning educators and alumni systems leaders in ways that disrupt inequitable practices for nearly 5,000 students across Indianapolis.
Before rejoining TFA's staff in 2018, JuDonne Hemingway served as the Assistant Principal of Academics at Butler College Prep, a campus of the Noble Network of Charter Schools. As Assistant Principal, she led as the campus's chief academic leader responsible for developing, supervising, and leading all instructional policies, strategic planning, programming, curricular decisions, and teacher development.
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JuDonne is also the President and Founder of the Foundation for Racial Equity in Education (F.R.E.E). F.R.E.E consults with educators, organizations, and school systems across the country to provide leadership development and support for anti- racist curriculum and systems more broadly. . FREE also runs a high impact fellowship for leaders of color in education seeking to increase their impact at every level of the education system.
Andrea Black Evans, M.Ed
BOARD MEMBER
Andrea is a former school principal of a high-performing elementary school in the city of Chicago. Andrea worked to create a strong instructional environment that supported the growth of a Golden Apple Award winner. Her career began in Atlanta, GA, as a Teach for America corps member. Her content knowledge, instructional aptitude, leadership dexterity, and commitment to excellence for all scholars, regardless of perceived deficits, quickly led her to aspirations beyond the classroom. When she started as a school leader it was classified as an underperforming school. Her efforts changed the school’s rating from Underperforming to Good Standing, brought in over $1 million of grant monies for campus beautification, and moved the 5essentials standings from Not Well Organized to Well-Organized.
Andrea holds a Master of Education degree from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree from Fisk University. She was selected as a TFA/Harvard Leadership Fellow via a partnership with Teach for America and Chicago Public Schools. Andrea values learning and professional growth, and sought our personal learning opportunities to continue to grow via fellowships with the Surge Institute, Cambiar, and Accelerate Institute. Her leadership mantra is, “If you base your decisions on what’s best for kids, you will never have to question your decision.”
KELLI HOBSON
TREASURER
Kelli Hobson is a former CPS educator, lifelong learner, and leading executive expert in nonprofit management and programmatic creation. With a BA in Elementary Education, by way of Chicago State University.
As a lifelong educator, Kelli has designed and facilitated intentional, culturally responsive programming for students and adults in a variety of leadership capacities. She wholeheartedly believes in the importance of reshaping and reimagining an education system to serve marginalized and disenfranchised communities. Kelli is a mother of 2 boys ages 15 and 9, and is currently using her facilitation and program building skills to consult schools and organizations towards more equitable stakeholder experiences.
DANA WILLIAMSON
SECRETARY
Dana Williamson is a Vice President, Assistant General Counsel at JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. In addition to her traditional legal, contractual responsibilities, Dana works within JPMorgan to support initiatives focused on increasing diversity and inclusion in the engagement of outside counsel. A graduate of New York University School of Law, Dana participated in the Juvenile Defense Clinic and worked at the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights representing minors in family courts in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Orleans Parish. Dana was a founding member of The Associates’ Committee – a member-funded grant foundation that supported legal aid and impact litigation non-profits, and currently is an advisory member of Working on Womanhood - a counseling and clinical mentoring program working to improve the social-emotional competencies for teen girls exposed to traumatic stressors in under-resourced communities.
RHONDA KIMBROUGH
BOARD MEMBER
Rhonda has a B.A. in Education from Roosevelt University Chicago, an M.A. in Curriculum and Instruction with a Reading Endorsement from Loyola University Chicago, and a Mathematics Endorsement from the University of Chicago. She has 35 years of career experience with Chicago Public Schools. Rhonda taught elementary, middle school, and art. She also served as a curriculum developer, after-school program coordinator, reading specialist, and during her final 16 years of pre-retirement as a Network/Area Reading Coach.
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Having an infallible joy for teaching and learning, Rhonda returned to the educational system after several months of retirement to rekindle her passion for education. She became a reading interventionist at an east-side parochial school. As an independent contractor for the following three years, 2019-2022, Rhonda collaborated with Roosevelt University for their Balanced Literacy Program, taking on the role of Middle School Consultant/Coach for the Illinois Empower grant at a south suburban school district. Rhonda co-authored her innovative work on creating unique digital libraries during the pandemic, highlighted in the Illinois Reading Council Journal in the Fall of 2021.
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During her many years as a coach and consultant, Rhonda led countless professional development sessions, coached teachers on Best Instructional Practices in Reading,
facilitated data deep dives, and led numerous projects. Rhonda is now a school board
member/secretary for a south suburban school district and a board member for the
nonprofit organization Burst Into Books, focusing on cultural literacy through education.