OUR STAFF
Kyle Hanawalt | Executive Director
Lesly Marroquin | Washington Site Director
Blair De Haan | Director of Development
Tricia Murray | Director of Staff Development
Tiana Smith | Lincolnwood Site Director
Viviana Patino | Dewey Site Director
Tasha Triplett | Director of Programming
Stephanie Black | Kingsley Site Director
Neha Haque | Willard Site Director
Kelli Wynn | Lincoln Site Director
Jessica Dezil | Walker Site Director
Yuni Mora | Oakton Site Director
OUR BOARD
DeMico Davis
Current Company/Organization: Evanston Scholars
DeMico is from the Twin Cities of Minnesota. He earned a B.A. from St. Olaf College, where he majored in Sociology/Anthropology, and a Master of Public Policy from Loyola University Chicago. He is an alumnus of TRiO Student Support Services and TRiO McNair Scholars programs. Following graduation, he oversaw the Foodservice Training Program facilitated at Inspiration Kitchens, employment services, and a college scholarship fund. Since 2021, DeMico serves as the Career Readiness Manager of Evanston Scholars, working with first generation college entrants of Evanston Township High School. He enjoys assisting his college Scholars with obtaining summer internships, networking, and building self-confidence. In his free time, DeMico enjoys baking and cooking, snuggling with his cat, Samson, and performing live music with his wife, Pam.
DeMico Davis
Diego Lopez
Current Company/Organization: Senior Business Program Specialist at Deloitte
Professional Career and How You Came to B&B: As a previous Northwestern tutor and current board member, it is easy to see the impact of Books and Breakfast. As someone who grew up in a low-income family where we didn't always have the resources others had, it is amazing to see B&B students receive the care, support, and love that they need to start the day off physically, mentally, and emotionally prepared. I believe in Books and Breakfast because I see the impact it has on the students, school, and community. I see Books and Breakfast making a lasting difference in the experience of underrepresented communities in Evanston.
Diego Lopez
Devon Alexander
Imani Wilson
Imani Wilson (she/her/hers) grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska. She first landed in Evanston when she started her bachelor’s degree program at Northwestern University. While at Northwestern, she studied Social Policy, Latinx Studies and volunteered as a B&B tutor at Kingsley Elementary school. Driven by her desire to have an impact on schools & students, she pursued a degree in social work and graduated from the University of Chicago in 2020. Currently, she is in her 4th year as a school social worker at Evanston Township High School. At ETHS she serves on the racial equity committee, teacher’s council, and is an organizer for the Black student summit. In her free time she enjoys doing yoga & baking.
Imani Wilson
Chris Skey
Current Company/Organization: Quarles & Brady LLP
Professional Career: I’m a partner at the Quarles & Brady law firm in Chicago, where I practice in the areas of energy and infrastructure law. I work with a wide range of clients on energy regulation, energy project development (mostly renewables these days!), administrative litigation, and energy contracting. I also serve as our Chicago office’s pro bono partner, and I chair the Advisory Board of Chicago Volunteer Legal Services, one of the oldest civil pro bono legal services organizations in the country.
How You Came to B&B: When B&B expanded to Kingsley a few years back, I had the good fortune to sign up for a tutor training session. Working with the dedicated B&B staff and other community volunteers, I felt immediately at home tutoring in the B&B program, and I continue to tutor through B&B’s elementary and middle school sites. The opportunity to serve on B&B’s board was a natural extension of my commitment to B&B’s good works.
Chris Skey
Marybeth Schroeder
Marybeth retired in 2020 as Vice President of Programs at Evanston Community Foundation after nearly 21 years leading grantmaking programs and the Leadership Evanston program. Until recently, she continued to do some consulting work with ECF, and she still consults part-time with other nonprofits and institutions. Before coming to ECF, Marybeth managed a national education project for Urban Libraries Council, served as chief of staff to a Chicago alderman, and worked as a librarian. She is a proud Illini and has a MA in Library Science from University of Chicago. In her semi-retirement, she takes classes at Northwestern's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (coordinating one focused on mysteries); explores Chicago's vibrant theatre, dining, and arts scene as much as possible; and expands her travel horizons.
In her role at ECF, Marybeth had the privilege of working with B&B from its founding when it entered their capacity-building grant cohort program, root2fruit. Over the years, she worked together when B&B participated in two matching gift programs. As a former librarian who believes in the power of reading, B&B's mission of supporting children and their families and building equity really resonates with her. And as someone with a passion for building strong nonprofits, she's been really impressed with B&B's thoughtful growth and development.
Marybeth Schroeder
Devron Enarson
Current Company/Organization: Dev Photography
Raised with a strong emphasis on service, Devron has been volunteering with various non for profits since her youth equalling thousands of hours.
Community engagement and human rights have always been close to her heart.
Joining the board of Books and Breakfast is integrated way to continue that tradition while her kids are moving through D65. She is happy to share her perspective on the current inside experience of the district to help inform board decisions.
Professionally she has been a photographer working for others and eventually on her own for the last 20 years. Her focus is on portraiture of all kinds.
She lives with her husband and two kids in Evanston.
Devron Enarson
Lakesha Lockett
Current Company/Organization: Epic Academy
Professional Career: I have held various communications and development positions for nonprofit organizations serving children and families. Driven by a passion for continued learning, I received a certificate in Nonprofit Leadership from the University of Wisconsin Parkside in 2016. I recently joined EPIC Academy as the Director of Development and Communications.
How You Came to B&B: After a couple of conversations, Kathy recruited me as a candidate for the board. Once I spoke with Kim and Tasha, I was excited by their commitment to the work and my passion for helping youth aligned with the mission. After that meeting, I knew I wanted to serve on the board.
Lakesha Lockett
Paul Goren
Current Company/Organization: Northwestern Center for Applied Research in Education (NCARE)
Paul Goren has spent his career in positions at the intersection of education practice, policy, and research. He currently serves as Executive Director of the Northwestern Center for Applied Research in Education (NCARE), formerly known as the Center for Education Efficacy, Excellence and Equity (E4), at the Northwestern School of Education and Social Policy (https://e4.northwestern.edu/ncare/). NCARE is an established research/practice partnership that works directly with school district partners on problems of practice that require research and analysis.
Between 2014-2019, Goren was Superintendent of Schools for the Evanston/Skokie (IL) School District, where he implemented early literacy curricular reforms, established climate teams and approaches to social/emotional learning and restorative justice in every building, and led a robust equity agenda that included racial identity training for 1400 employees over a 2-year period.
Prior to joining District 65, Goren was the Senior Vice President for Program at the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) in Chicago. Previously he served as the Interim Chief for Strategy and Accountability for Chicago Public Schools while working as Executive Director of the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research. A former middle school social studies and math teacher and basketball coach, Goren worked on the senior administrative teams of the Minneapolis Public Schools and the San Diego Unified School District. He served for over a decade as Senior Vice president of the Spencer Foundation. He also worked in a senior leadership role at the MacArthur Foundation as Program Director for Child and Youth Development. Goren worked in the education policy studies group at the National Governors’ Association as Senior Policy Analyst, as Deputy Director, and then as Director. He held the Ian Axford Fellowship for Public Policy through New Zealand Fulbright serving for seven months in the NZ Ministry of Education to study policies impacting Maori children. Goren graduated with a BA from Williams College, a Master of Public Affairs degree from the LBJ School of Public Policy at the University of Texas-Austin, and a PhD from Stanford University.
Paul Goren
Candance Chow
Candance is the Managing Director and Co-Founder at NextGroup LLC. She spent the first part of her career in nonprofit advocacy and management, which was followed by a 20+ year stint in various facets of management consulting and tech start-up management. In 2019, NextGroup was founded by her and three other Evanston women to provide support and advancement opportunities for women and professionals of color who are relaunching, pivoting, or transitioning in their careers.
Candance was on the D65 School Board and a parent at Kingsley when the B&B program launched at the school in 2017. Candance and her husband began volunteering during that time, and later on, their daughter also joined as a volunteer through the B&B program with Northwestern. The Chows are a B&B family through and through, embodying a spirit of community involvement and support for educational initiatives.
Candance Chow
Sandra Chiu-Atkinson
Background: I am a first generation American, the daughter of Hong Kong immigrants, and grew up in central Illinois at a time when there were few minorities in my community and in my school. Luckily, I had a couple of good friends and a love of reading. With the strong support of my parents, some wonderful teachers and my books, I was the first in my family to graduate from college, Brown University. It was a big deal for my parents. After college, I worked in Congress for two Senators on transportation and trade policies for five years. I then moved to United Airlines as the Director for International Affairs, negotiating for greater aviation access in foreign markets and helping solve doing-business problems overseas. I eventually started an aviation consulting practice, which represented airport authorities in Washington DC, Boston, Denver and Oakland, CA. Currently, I volunteer and chaired Woman’s Club of Evanston (WCE) committees that focus on supporting local nonprofits serving those in need. It was during my work at WCE that I learned about Books & Breakfast’s exceptional work providing emotional, physical and academic support for children in our community. I live in Evanston with my husband Graham, another first generation American, and have two multiracial children who went through the Evanston public school system. Why I am at Books & Breakfast: Raising happy, resilient and loving children takes a community. B&B harnesses that community energy to help children in need by giving them a nutritious meal to start their day, providing academic support, and letting them know they belong and are loved. In addition to my board duties supporting B&B’s operations and fundraising efforts, I volunteer at one of the B&B school sites that has a large number of children from our vibrant immigrant community. I get great joy sharing my love of books with them and letting them know there are others in our community who care deeply about them
Sandy Chiu