Beth is an accomplished public, nonprofit, and philanthropic leader who has spent her career leading transformative efforts to improve the lives of young people.
She is currently CEO of A Better Chicago, changing how Chicago fights poverty by investing in organizations and leaders that are creating opportunity for Chicago’s youth.
A Better Chicago has invested over $65M in high impact non-profits and reaches over 49,000 youth annually.
Previously, Beth was Vice President of Strategy and Programs at The Joyce Foundation guiding an annual portfolio of $50 million, providing strategic direction across six program areas, and working on foundation-wide innovation initiatives.
Prior to Joyce, Beth served as Deputy for Education for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, working with education, non-profit, business and community leaders to define the city’s education policy agenda.
Her portfolio included Chicago Public Schools, City Colleges of Chicago, Department of Family Support Services, Chicago Park District and Chicago Libraries.
Beth previously served as Executive Director of the Pritzker Traubert Family Foundation and worked for Chicago Public Schools with then CEO Arne Duncan, serving as Director of the Office of Extended Learning Opportunities and leading the Office of Management and Budget.
Beth holds a B.A. in English and American studies from Amherst College, as well as a master’s in public policy from the University of Chicago. Currently, Beth is Vice Chair of the City Colleges of Chicago’s Board of Trustees, a board member of The Partnership for College Completion and Thrive Chicago, and serves on the Illinois P-20 Council.
Peggy A. Davis, Secretary
Peggy A. Davis is vice president of community impact for The Chicago Community Trust, responsible for programmatic leadership and grant making that reflect the organization’s commitment to service. In this role, she provides leadership integrating services to better connect donors with expertise and local knowledge to power more meaningful philanthropy.
Davis joined the Trust as a talented leader and a legal professional with a range of experience across the private, public and nonprofit sectors. Most recently she served as executive director for the Chicago Committee, a membership organization advancing racial and ethnic diversity in the legal profession. Prior roles include general counsel for the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority in Chicago, vice president for diversity and staffing at Exelon Corporation, trustee of the CPS Board of Education and chief of staff to former Chicago Public Schools CEO and current U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan. Davis is also a former partner at Winston & Strawn LLP.
Laritza Lopez, Trustee
Laritza Lopez is the founder and CEO of Purple Group, assumed name for Lopez Martin & Associates, a full-service, award-winning strategic marketing communications and advertising firm that provides Hispanic marketing, multicultural marketing and total market expertise.
Laritza has over 25 years of marketing communications, advertising, management and operations experience having served in a range of marketing, management, advertising and COO/CMO positions at large Fortune 500 firms. She has an extensive general management and marketing background in nonprofit and education sectors.
Her experience extends both domestically and internationally, with an excellent track-record of building brands, developing new markets, rebuilding business sectors, growing business units and developing systems, operations and marketing infrastructures. Laritza has established and managed successful businesses in Canada, Europe, Latin America and the United States.
Laritza received a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing and Management and a minor in communications from Loyola University Chicago. Additionally, she completed the Harvard School of Business, Summer Venture in Management Program, and continues her education as part of the Google Engage Program, conferences, industry participation and self-learning.
Laritza lives in Chicago with husband Ruben, their two children Faro and Lila, and the family dog, Blu.
Darrell A. Williams, Trustee
Darrell A. Williams is Founder and Managing Member of DuSable Group, LLC (“DuSable”), a financial advisory, consulting and management practice. Darrell has nearly 40 years of investment, financial advisory, fiduciary and governance experience with entities ranging from start-ups to successful publicly traded companies in a broad array of industries. He has executed transactions at every level of the capital structure, with particular expertise in private transactions (mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, private placements and business valuations). Prior to founding DuSable, Darrell was a Managing Director at Loop Capital LLC where he served in various roles including Chief Operating Officer and strategic advisor.
Darrell has served on the boards of directors of twelve companies, ranging from venture-funded to publicly traded and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Amalgamated Bank of Chicago. Prior experience includes investor representation on the boards of companies including VeriSign Inc., a leading provider of back-end systems, security and other network infrastructure and services for Internet protocol communications and electronic commerce. Darrell was also a member of the board of directors of Intrado Inc. (formerly NASDAQ:TRDO), the premier provider of operations support systems, software and services for mission critical public safety communications. Darrell served Intrado shareholders as an independent director, chairman of the Company’s audit committee and member of its compensation committee. As Audit Committee chair, he supervised both internal and external audit, accounting policy and financial reporting activities and led management of the company’s implementation of controls audit and other requirements of Sarbannes-Oxley legislation. In addition to his financial-related fiduciary background, Darrell’s portfolio of experience includes:
- Thought partnership with senior corporate leadership around strategic matters and initiatives
- Evaluation of strategic transactions including review of fairness opinions other valuation matters
- Risk management oversight
- Support of stakeholder management including with compliance and regulatory entities
- Management evaluation, compensation and succession planning
- Board member evaluation and recruitment
In addition to his business involvements, Darrell is heavily involved in civic, charitable and community activities. These include service on the Board of Trustees of the City Colleges of Chicago, the City Colleges of Chicago Foundation, current chairmanship of the board of directors for the Chicago Center for Art and Technology (
www.chicat.org) and OneGoal Chicago (
www.onegoalgraduation.org). He has also served on the board of advisors for the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center at DePaul University. Darrell holds a Bachelor of Science degree from DePaul University’s College of Commerce and a Master of Business Administration degree from the Harvard University Graduate School of Business. While at Loop Capital, he held multiple securities industry licenses (Series 7, 24 & 63) and has achieved Certified Director status (NACD.CD) with the National Association of Corporate Directors.