It is our pleasure to inform you that The Kennedy Forum Illinois is officially growing!
We have two new staff members and an AmeriCorps member joining our team in September as well as one staff member joining in October. We would like to tell you more about our new team members (in alphabetical order):
- Muna Abdullahi, Program Manager – Muna comes to us by way of AMITA Health, where she was an AmeriCorps’ Healthy Minds Alliance member. She is certified by the National Council on Behavioral Health to be a trainer in Mental Health First Aid and has created training curricula around mental health. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in public health and is committed to ending discrimination around mental health and substance use disorders.
- David Applegate, Director of Illinois State Policy – David is coming to us after serving two years as Special Projects Manager for Senator Tammy Duckworth and four years at SEIU as an organizer. He has a Bachelor’s from Boston College and a Master’s in public policy from the University of Chicago Harris School. He comes to us with a passion for our work in parity and is educated on key mental health and substance use policy issues critical to Illinois.
- Jacqueline Cambron, AmeriCorps – Jackie is from Albany Park and obtained her BA in Psychology from the University of Iowa. In the near future, she will pursue her Master’s in Public Health. Her passion is raising awareness and helping create change specifically in underrepresented communities. Jackie will be certified by the National Council on Behavioral Health to be a trainer in Mental Health First Aid.
- Jessica Catlin, Director of Development – Jessica has a strong background in fundraising having worked with Habitat for Humanity, Greater Phoenix Economic Council, and most recently Advance Illinois. She also has great experience in stakeholder engagement through media, public relations, and political strategy and services. She holds a BA in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Jessica’s unique combination of skills will greatly help TKFI develop a strong funding foundation for our work.
We look forward to opportunities to introduce these new team members to all of you.