Polk Bros. Foundation announces two strategic staff appointments and celebrates a promotion
Polk Bros. Foundation will soon welcome two new staff members in positions created, in part, to support the success of the Foundation’s work to more fully and intentionally infuse racial equity and justice into the Foundation’s overall grantmaking. We’re excited to introduce both of our new colleagues here, and also share news about the well-deserved promotion of a current colleague.
Katie Rondeau Weinheimer is set to step into the role of Chief of Staff in mid-March, working closely with Polk Bros. Foundation CEO Gillian Darlow to help ensure the success of key Foundation initiatives, foster purposeful connections across the work of the Foundation and put methods in place to evaluate and continuously learn from Foundation’s grantmaking.
Katie comes to the Foundation from Thrive Chicago, where she served first as Chief of Staff and then Director of Strategy, providing strategic support across the organization, leading Board engagement, facilitating cross-departmental and change management efforts, and improving collaboration across the organization. Katie is a social worker by training and has worked as a school social worker as well as an impact and evaluation analyst for Chicago Commons. Previously, she served as a consultant with Boston-based Trinity Life Sciences, a global team of advisors, technical experts, data integrators and technology innovators.
“I have long admired Polk Bros. Foundation and their deep commitment to the city of Chicago. I look forward to joining the Foundation’s team of dedicated professionals and broader network of partners, and I am eager to play a role in the continued excellence and impact the Foundation has,” said Katie.
“I am thrilled to welcome Katie to the Foundation in this new role. She has so much passion for Chicago and its communities, and brings a strategic mindset and connections to Chicago’s nonprofit sector. I look forward to the many ways she will help deepen the Foundation’s impact and work together with us and our partners to create a more just and racially equitable Chicago,” said Gillian.
Anna Lee, a longtime partner and colleague to Foundation staff and many of the Foundation’s grantee partners, will join Polk Bros. Foundation in mid-June as Vice President of Strategic Initiatives. In this role, Anna will serve as a thought partner and advisor to the Foundation and to Polk Bros. Foundation CEO Gillian Darlow, and join the Foundation’s ongoing efforts to center racial equity more effectively within its overall grantmaking strategy. She will play a pivotal role in recognizing and helping to shape efforts by Foundation program staff to continuously improve and increase the impact of the Foundation’s grantmaking while also working to preserve and make readily accessible key organizational knowledge, expertise and history.
Anna has deep relationships in communities across the city and within Chicago’s philanthropic and nonprofit sectors. She is currently United Way of Metro Chicago’s Vice President of Strategic Initiatives, where she works with its many partners across all sectors in innovative efforts to build a stronger region. Most recently she has been guiding the launch and implementation of the new 211 Metro Chicago helpline that connects residents to non-emergency health and social service supports. Prior to United Way, Anna was at The Chicago Community Trust as a Senior Director of Community Impact. She led The Trust’s Addressing Critical Needs strategy. Under Anna’s direction, this grantmaking strategy responded to the region’s most urgent needs and advanced policies and practices in strengthening the human service sector. She also co-managed the Chicago Community COVID-19 Response Fund, a partnership with United Way of Metro Chicago, which raised over $35 million to support the region’s residents most in need of support amid the COVID-19 crisis.
Anna previously worked with Year Up Chicago and held leadership roles in the public sector, including the Chicago Housing Authority, the City of Chicago’s Department of Family and Support Services and the City’s Office of Budget and Management’s Empowerment Zone. Anna is a Leadership Greater Chicago Fellow and serves on the boards of Forefront, Disability Lead and the Albert Pick, Jr. Fund.
“Polk Bros. Foundation is embedded in the vitality and richness of my beloved Chicago. Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to closely partner with the trusted staff at Polk Bros. Foundation to effectuate lasting change in the social impact sector and tackle the City’s most urgent issues in public health, community safety, housing insecurity, and supporting immigrants and refugees. I am excited to work on a day-to-day basis with the talented team at Polk Bros. Foundation towards a more equitable Chicago,” said Anna.
“Anna understands Chicago and what it takes to make a lasting difference for all the people who call our city home. Throughout her career she has built strong, compassionate relationships with numerous nonprofit, community and philanthropic leaders, and we have been fortunate to call Anna a partner for many years. I am looking forward to learning and collaborating with her as she takes on this new role,” said Gillian.
JC Aevaliotis, who first joined the Foundation as a Program Officer in 2016, has been promoted to Senior Program Officer. JC leads grantmaking in the Foundation’s Arts Access and Learning program area, focusing on strategies that increase Chicago public school students’ access to the many benefits of long-term participation in authentic arts learning.
“JC has definitely earned this. He has been such a thoughtful leader and strategic partner in so many external collaborations and initiatives in the arts education community and the nonprofit sector more broadly, as well as in our own internal work to center racial equity. He has thoughtfully worked to engage and collaborate with leaders in the fields his grantmaking supports to identify and address issues and leverage opportunities that can make critical change in Chicago,” said Gillian.
“I am deeply grateful for my time at Polk Bros. Foundation and the relationships and perspectives this work has allowed me to develop. The challenges facing communities and schools across our city are enormous and complex, but our schools and our communities are full of extraordinary educators and artists and organizations that want to work together with students and their families to build a new future for our schools and our city. I am humbled and grateful to be a part of this work,” said JC.
With these staffing changes and several planned retirements already announced, Polk Bros. Foundation expects to announce additional program staff opportunities in the spring or early summer. Career opportunities will be shared through the Foundation’s website and social media channels. These new roles, like the ones announced today, will work with the full Foundation team to advance the Foundation’s mission and center learnings from recent increased grantmaking about how a focus on racial equity can be more intentionally infused into the Foundation’s overall grantmaking.
