Monica Chadha, AIA, LEED AP, is founder and principal of Civic Projects Architecture, a Chicago-based practice with a social impact focus. Prior to starting her firm, she served as founding director of Impact Detroit and led project teams at Studio Gang and Ross Barney Architects, where she was integral to the design of award-winning, civic scale buildings. Her approach to design is highly participatory, going beyond architecture to engage in strategic planning, development, and revitalization.

Civic Projects is engaged in a wide variety of work: including their collaboration with Ralph Appelbaum Associates on the Obama Presidential Center Museum and planning and design for GCE, a private nonprofit high school’s downtown Chicago campus.

Current clients and projects include planning for The Nature Conservancy, redesign of the National Museum of Mexican Art’s educational spaces, programming for LancasterHistory (PA) Democratic Center, various scales of residential projects and the design of a new community center on Chicago’s South Side.

Monica has also worked at Vastu-Shilpa Foundation for Research & Studies in Environmental Design as a Research Associate in the Office of Balkrishna Doshi, on the development of housing prototypes for low-income communities.

Outside of Civic Projects, Monica is on the Board of Trustees of the Graham Foundation and has been an Adjunct Professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology. She holds a Masters of Architecture from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a Bachelors of Environmental Studies in Architecture from the University of Waterloo, Canada. Civic Projects is a certified women owned and minority owned firm.

Robinson Markus (he/they) is a founding worker-owner and the General Manager at Evanston Development Cooperative (EDC), a worker-owned cooperative focused on designing and building sustainable, inclusive neighborhoods. Robinson played an integral role in Evanston’s accessory dwelling unit (ADU) code reform. Since then, the cooperative has built Evanston’s first affordable ADU, secured one million dollars for a two-year pilot to perform climate-resilient retrofits of affordable housing, and is currently leading an initiative to implement pre-approved, model ADU plans in partnership with the City of Evanston. 

Russ Rydin is the Deputy Director of the Chicago Metropolitan Housing Development Corporation (CMHDC).

CMHDC is a non-profit housing development corporation serving the Chicago metropolitan area. CMHDC’s efforts concentrate in the retention of affordable rental housing, especially in those communities where there is a shortage of affordable housing.

Nicolle Wood is an Entertainment Production Designer and Director of Galaxie Chicago.  She was able to employ her various learned skills in the trades, and experience working with tradespeople to design, serve as the General Contractor and assist with many aspects of the build of her Coach House. A skill that she frequently relied upon during her year-long project is that of knowing how to ask a question without tipping anyone off that you don’t have the answer. 

Emily Bloom-Carlin is a Senior Program Officer at The Preservation Compact.

A substantial focus of Emily’s work at the Compact is developing policies, tools, and incentives for preserving small and medium-sized rental properties as affordable. Her current portfolio also includes projects related to property tax policy, equitable pandemic recovery, and accessory dwelling units.

Prior to joining the Compact in 2017, Emily worked with the Housing Justice team at the Shriver Center on Poverty Law and at Metro Housing Boston.

Donna Clarke joined NHS Chicago (NHS) as Chief Operating Officer in November 2017. In this role, she oversees the day-to-day operations of NHS and the administration of the agency’s housing initiatives. She has led the business transformation of the agency over the past several years leveraging technology to modernize processes and improve the efficiency of operations while adapting to the changing hybrid workplace environment. In late 2019, with the departure of the CEO, Donna also stepped in as Interim President for 13-months fiercely working to keep NHS thriving, especially throughout the pandemic. Donna has always been attracted to transformative and socially responsible projects. A media industry veteran firmly planted in New York City, Donna uprooted her career and moved to El Paso, Texas to join the housing authority team managing the rehabilitation and revitalization of the city’s entire public housing portfolio through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) initiative. While in El Paso, she also assisted the local YMCA with generating programmatic revenue by lending her grant writing expertise.
Donna has also held leadership roles at The Walt Disney Company and Time Warner in consumer marketing on their print and/or digital platforms. She launched and led the revenue operations for CNNMoney.com, a 13-year joint venture between Turner Broadcasting’s CNN.com and Time Inc.’s Fortune and Money magazines.
Donna comes to NHS with a strong background in operational strategy and has the acute ability to foster collaboration between various partners to optimize impact. She also brings to the agency her entrepreneurial spirit, creativity, and substantial experience launching new products and programs on a variety of platforms.
Donna holds a Master of Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University.

Since graduating as a MUPP from UIC’s Urban Planning and Policy program, Adam Rogers has worked in several affordable housing and real estate related roles including Goodman Williams Group, the Illinois Housing Development Authority, the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, and is presently at CIBC Bank USA where he is a managing director in the bank’s community development department focusing on financing restricted affordable multi-family rental properties and the acquisition and rehabilitation of for-sale vacant, foreclosed, and abandoned single-family homes.

Jesse has over 15 years of Mortgage experience and spans across many corners of the industry. From wholesale lending to retail… from sales to leadership. His journey is what creates a very unique lending experience for his clients. His true passion is educating individuals on how to build wealth by leveraging real estate. Whether that is working with homeowners looking to buy their first home and helping move up buyers, or advising real estate investors looking for value add projects, client satisfaction is the cornerstone of his business and how he measures success. He has built one of the best teams in the business and takes extreme pride in providing first class service.

Ros Meerdink is a Senior Loan Officer at Community Investment Corporation (CIC). CIC is mission-driven non-profit lender specializing in multifamily properties, 5 units and above. Prior to joining CIC’s lending team, Ros worked on the Troubled Building Initiative, a multi-agency program that aims to preserve and reclaim troubled and abandoned buildings primarily through the housing court process. She is currently focused on financing that promotes affordability – including Single Room Occupancy preservation, Mezzanine Debt and various City grant programs. Originally from Cleveland, Ros moved to Chicago to pursue an Urban Planning degree and now lives in Logan Square.