Manager of Earned Revenue, Marketing and Communications: Maria Miranda Ramirez Program Director: Karen Ekpenyong Manager of Office Operations, Finance and Program Support: Patti Pangborn Manager of After-School and Community Outreach Programs: Elizabeth Marsh Manager of Performance Arts Learning and Special Projects: Meida McNeal
Coordinator of Foundation Relations and Grants: Emilie Shumway
With an average of over 28 years of experience, program team members are veteran educators, artist and literacy leaders with a successful track record of working in public school or community-based settings. This diverse team has worked in various capacities to mobilize the arts as a social change strategy and improve student learning through teacher and student development programs and curricula that places students at the center of the educational experience.
Literacy Specialists
Marianne Flanagan
Karen Jaros-Doria
Gale Liebman
Toni Murff
Teaching Artists
Yaasha Abraham
Stephanie (Yatta) Carter
Aurelia Clunie
Pedro Cruz
Tony Denis
Nora Fiffer
Marta Garcia
L'oreal Jackson
Rhonda Jackson
Tonika Johnson
Hondo Lawrence
Heather Lindahl
Tabitha Mathews
Meida McNeal
Sage Morgan Hubbard
Johanna Moscoso
Sadira Muhammad
Jenkin Ng
Star Padilla
Jean Parisi
Chanelle Patrick
Patricia Peixoto
Candida Riley
Danielle Riley
Kelsa Robinson
Diana Solis
Davina Stewart
Lailaw Taherzadeh
Nancy Vachon
Heather Vernon
Adam Welton
Andrew Norm Wilson
Mark Rodriguez, Executive Director
As the organization’s first Executive Director, Mark Rodriguez has led Changing Worlds’ development from a small project at one school to a multi-faceted state-wide resource serving over 10,000 residents annually. Rodriguez has worked for over a decade to strengthen Chicago's nonprofits and communities in various roles such as program director, community organizer, education director, community relations manager and consultant through New Leaders for New Schools, National-Louis University, Business and Professional People for the Public Interest (BPI), the University of Chicago and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago among others.
In 2007, Rodriguez was selected as one of Chicago's "35 under 35" from the Community Renewal Society. In 2010, he was awarded an Emerging Arts Leaders of Color Fellowship through the Joyce Foundation. Rodriguez currently serves on the board of the Crossroads Fund and is a co-founder of the Telpochcalli Community Education Project.
Mark Rodriguez graduated cum laude from Roosevelt University with a Bachelor of Arts in communications and holds advanced certifications in Philanthropy Management from Loyola University, Nonprofit Management and Human Resources from Roosevelt University and Adult Education and Literacy Best Practices from National-Louis University.
Maria Miranda Ramirez, Manager of Earned Revenue, Marketing and Communications
Karen Ekpenyong, Program Director
Karen brings over a decade of experiences in education. Her professional experience includes serving as a principal, curriculum specialist, dean of students, and classroom teacher. She has also served as an Adjunct Professional at Harold Washington College and VanderCook College of Music. Karen holds a bachelors degree in Geography from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Campaign and a masters' degree in International Relations from American University in Washington, D.C. Karen holds a Type 75 Illinois Administrative Certificate and is currently completing a doctorate degree in Urban Education Leadership at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Patti Pangborn, Manager of Office Operations, Finance and Program Support
Dr. Meida Teresa McNeal (PhD, Performance Studies, Northwestern University) is Manager of Performance Arts Learning with Changing Worlds. A practicing artist and scholar of performance studies, dance and critical ethnography, she teaches at several Chicago area universities and colleges in addition to her work supporting Teaching Artists at Changing Worlds. Meida is Artistic Director of Honey Pot Performance, a woman-focused collaborative creative community committed to chronicling and interrogating Afro-diasporic feminist and unconventional subjectivities amidst the pressures of contemporary global life. Her research combines performances and ethnography integrating interests in the Caribbean, African American vernacular performance, dance, race/ethnicity, class, gender/sexuality, creolization, diasporic cultural production and digital humanities. Combining her commitment to embodied performance with a love for scholarship, Meida is currently completing her first book-lengthen manuscript "Compromised Subjectivities: Constructing Trinidadian Nationhood and Navigating Postcolonial Caribbean Performance" based on more than ten years of ethnographic research with Afro- and Indo-Trinidadian dance and performance companies supported in part by a Fulbright Grant.
Deborah joins our team with over thirty years of experience as an accomplished educator, nonprofit manager, business development specialist and trainer. During her career, she has been a classroom teacher, teacher coach, and has led and developed academic enrichment programs in partnership with the Chicago Public Schools. In addition to her experience in education, she also has a vast background in organizational development, cultural diversity programming and nonprofit management.
Deborah holds a bachelor's of arts degree in education from Montclair State College and a master's degree from the same institution in student personnel services. She engaged in post-graduate study at New York University in curriculum development and instruction and completed additional graduate coursework in organizational developmetn at Stevens Institite of Technology in New Jersey.
Sheila Hobson, Contractual Accountant
Indira Freitas Johnson, Integration and Arts and Peace Consultant
Ms. Johnson is an award winning artist and the founder of the Shanti Foundation for Peace, which she established in 1993 in response to the rise of ethnic violence the world over. Johnson based Shanti's vision on her own artistic experience, namely that the skills necessary to, and gained through, art-making are inseparable from the skills needed for problem-solving and peace-making.
Since the merger of Shanti with Changing Worlds, Johnson has served as an arts and peace consultant to Changing Worlds. Johnson's work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is represented in numerous private and public collections including the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, RI and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA. She has been the recipient of many grants and awards, including the prestigious Governor's Award for the Arts. In recent years, Johnson has been involved in many innovative community art projects and exhibits which have provided an opportunity for various marginalized groups to become civically engaged. In addition, Johnson is a founding board member of Marketplace; Handwork of India and serves as an advisory board member of Women Made Gallery.
