Board of Directors

Elizabeth Bald

Elizabeth and her husband Rick have raised two daughters in Evanston and both graduated from ETHS. Elizabeth graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with a BFA and then moved to Chicago and attended The Harrington Institute of Interior Design. She owns her own interior design firm and has never met house she didn’t love. Her time on the board and as President of The North End Mothers’ Club fostered her interest and support of Evanston youth-based organizations.

Lander Brown

Lander and his wife Jeannette have raised two children in Evanston. Lander earned his B.S. from Michigan State University and M.S. in Human Resource Leadership from National Louis University. He currently works as a consultant in the areas of human resource strategy and talent acquisition. He enjoys spending time with his family and watching his sons play soccer.

David Chan

David S. Chan is the Director of Instructional Technology at Evanston Township High School (ETHS) where he oversees the libraries, media centers, and student tech support center. He is the project lead for the District's 1:1 Digital Learning Initiative.

David is a Google for Education Certified Innovator and Google for Education Certified Trainer. He presents regularly at educational technology conferences and is the co-chair of the Illinois Computer Educators’ (ICE) conference committee.

David earned a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry from Northwestern University, a Masters of Arts in Teaching from National Louis University (NLU), and a General Administrative Endorsement from DePaul University. He previously taught math and science at Roycemore School for five years, followed by Chemistry at ETHS for another five years. David continues to teach Chemistry online through Northwestern University’s Gifted Learning Links program and he is an adjunct instructor for NLU. David lives in Evanston with his wife and two boys.

Leslie Coronel

Leslie Coronel is a 2012 graduate of Evanston Township High School and a member of the very first class of Evanston Scholars. After Evanston, she attended and graduated from Amherst College in 2016, double majoring in Economics and Spanish. Leslie has three younger siblings who are also part of the Evanston Scholars program. She is the oldest daughter of Mexican immigrants and is the first in her family to attend college. While in college she helped kick off the First Generation Association, a club created with the goal to support first generation college students during their time at Amherst. Leslie also worked at the college’s Office of Admission for three years where she was able to gain more insight into the application review process for her institution.

Today Leslie is working at Medline Industries and is part of a three-year finance management development program where she will rotate to several different functions within the finance department at Medline. She helps to support the surgeon’s gloves division providing the President of the division with insight into the drivers of his sales, gross margin, and expenses in order to support the division in meeting their AGM growth goal.

Leslie looks forward to using her own personal experience at both ETHS, Amherst College, and as an Evanston Scholar alumni to work to improve and continue to grow the organization to fill the very real need for college support for students at ETHS.

Katie Dealy

Katie Dealy is the Chief Operating Officer at The University of Chicago’s Thirty Million Words (TMW). In this role, Katie is responsible for leading TMW’s strategic planning process as well as overseeing the day-to-day operations. Katie has spent her career working to improve education and health opportunities for children growing up in low-income communities, and she has extensive experience spanning public policy, early childhood education, and nonprofit program leadership. Prior to joining TMW, Katie worked for the national offices of Teach For America from 2010 to 2016 in increasingly advanced roles, most recently serving as chief of staff to the CEO from 2013 to 2016. Prior to Teach For America, Katie was the early childhood policy analyst for the City of Chicago Department of Family & Support Services. In that role, Katie analyzed and helped advise the city’s early childhood efforts. She was the education program officer at the Mayer and Morris Kaplan Family Foundation, and also worked for the Ounce of Prevention Fund as the senior writer, translating critical early childhood research and policy ideas for general audiences. Katie started her career as a teacher in Oakland, California through Teach For America. A proud Pittsburgh native, Katie has an AB in Government from Cornell University and an MA from Teachers College at Columbia University with two concentrations, one in family and community education and one in health education. Katie lives in Evanston with her husband Alan and three sons, Noah, Eli, and Jesse. She is thrilled to be on the board of Evanston Scholars.

Melissa Denton

Melissa Denton is a marketing and sales professional with nearly 15 years of experience in the consumer, pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. Accomplished and resourceful, Melissa has led brand strategies from concept to commercialization, and has managed direct reports, cross-functional teams, internal stakeholders and budgets of up to $75 million with sales that exceed $500 million. Her key achievements include the management of large, productive sales teams, Baxter micronutrient global trace element commercial launch in 45 countries; launch of Abbott Laboratories’ well-known Humira® Psoriasis, biologic product, and the development of a highly trafficked, award-winning disease-awareness website. An experienced global commercial leader, Melissa holds a Master of Business Administration degree, with a concentration in marketing management, from DePaul University. A native of Canton Ohio, Melissa earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism from Ohio University.

Melissa is an active civic leader, donating time and expertise to Evanston Scholars, the Taproot Foundation, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Evanston Northshore Alumnae Chapter, Family Focus Evanston, mentor and the Healthcare Business Women’s Association, Chicago Chapter. She has received numerous honors for her work, including Leadership Awards from the National Black MBA Chicago Chapter, Abbott Black Business Network. And Baxter Women Leaders. Melissa is married to Calvin with one son, Joshua and lives in Skokie, IL.

Mary Finnegan

Mary and her husband Paul have resided in Evanston since 1988. Their three children all graduated from Evanston Township High School. She previously served on the board for the Evanston Community Foundation, and is currently on the Root2Fruit Advisory Board, Community Works Initiative Committee, YOU Community Counsel, and Campaign Steering Committee. She graduated from Indiana University.

Steve Galler

Steve is a proud ETHS graduate, and he and his wife Becky are thrilled to have lived in Evanston since 1997 and raised two ETHS graduates. Steve is Executive Vice President and General Counsel at The Habitat Company LLC, a residential real estate development and property management company.

Steve has actively served in many other leadership roles in Evanston and Chicago, including affiliations with Y.O.U., Beth Emet Synagogue, BPI Chicago, Chicago Central Area Committee, Chicago Bar Association and Chicago Apartment Association. He graduated with a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and a J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law.

Steve enjoys paddleboarding, playing tennis and pickleball, and cheering for his favorite sports teams.

Gilberto Herrejon

Gilberto “Eddie” Is a proud parent of an Evanston Scholar. Eddie was born in Mexico came to the US when he was 9 years old. He has been living in Evanston for the last 4 years, raising and managing two teenage daughters. At the same time, he has been managing one of the ES staff favorite places to go -- he has been the general manager at Blind Faith Café since 2009. He loves this community and wants to help Evanston in any way he can.

Tammy Johnson

Tammytha Johnson is a life-long Evanstonian and an alumna of ETHS. Tammy brings extensive knowledge of and involvement in the community as well as a strong background in business. She has over twenty years of corporate experience with Fortune 500 companies such as AON Corporation, Kraft Foods, Global and Baxter Healthcare, within the sales and training arena. She holds an MBA with a dual concentration in Marketing and Human Resources from North Park University, and a Bachelor’s degree from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. She is actively volunteering as a mentor with Evanston Scholars and at her church New Life Covenant Southeast, in Chicago, IL.

She donates her time to Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. serving all mankind. Her passion for serving has led her to serve a recent six-year term on Foundation 65’s board, a workshop facilitator for Youth Job Center Evanston, a job coach for Job Coaches Connection in Chicago, and a three-year term as a PTA President of Dr. Bessie Rhodes Magnet School. Tammy is committed to using her gifts and talents to enhance the mission of Evanston Scholars. Tammy and her husband Shawn Sr have raised three children: two in college (Taylor Noelle & Ryan Nicole) and a Senior at Evanston Township High School (Shawn Jr).

Dan Kanter

Dan is a proud ETHS graduate, and he and his wife, Suzanne, have raised three children in Evanston, two who are ETHS graduates and one who is a current ETHS student. Dan earned a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley as well as a J.D. from Northwestern, and he currently works in investment management with Monroe Financial Partners. He enjoys volunteering for Evanston-based organizations as well as playing guitar for Chicken Bone, a local band.

Carol Lind

Carol and her husband, Chris, have lived in Evanston for more than 15 years.They have raised their two daughters here, one of whom recently graduated from ETHS. Carol is a graduate of Williams College and The University of Chicago Law School and practiced as a partner at Sidley Austin LLP and then as Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Northwestern Memorial HealthCare. Her other roles at Northwestern Medicine included governance, compliance, and real estate operations. Along with their involvement with Evanston Scholars, she and her husband also support first generation initiatives at Williams.

Nina Uziel-Miller
Nina is a licensed clinical psychologist. She received her bachelors from Northwestern University and her doctoral degree from Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine. Nina has published research papers in peer-reviewed, scientific journals as well as creative nonfiction in several literary magazines. She is in private practice and also on faculty at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine. Nina and her husband, Rich, are deeply committed to the town of Evanston where they are raising their two daughters, one a 2019 ETHS graduate and college freshman, the other an ETHS sophomore. Nina has been an active volunteer in Evanston schools and in the broader community. She is thrilled to have the opportunity to make a significant impact through her position on the Evanston Scholars board.

Chris Ward

Chris is a 1988 graduate of ETHS. After Evanston, he attended Franklin and Marshall College, graduating with a Major in Government, and a Minor in History. He currently works at Crown Media, the Home of Hallmark Channel and HMM as the Senior Vice President of Advertising Sales.
Chris and his wife Lisa moved to Evanston in 2004 and have three children currently attending schools in Evanston. They have the district covered with a Sophomore at ETHS, an 8th grader at Nichols, and a 4th grader at Lincoln.
Chris is currently serving as a mentor to Fernando Licea, who is a Sophmore at the University of Illinois. In addition to Evanston Scholars, Chis has worked closely with The Infant Welfare Society of Evanston in their fundraising efforts.

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