Eva Maddox is a design superstar – consulting principal of Eva Maddox Design Strategies; retired design principal of Perkins & Will; and co-founder with Stanley Tigerman of Archeworks, a multidisciplinary design school that provides design solutions for social needs. She was inducted into the Interior Design Hall of Fame in 1992 and named “Chicagoan of the Year.”

Eva is a futurist with boundless curiosity about what will happen next. A significant part of her learning comes from teaching – at last count to well over 100 organizations. “I have always taught because of how much I learn from young people. It keeps me in reality.” Eva also says, “To me, acquiring knowledge is constant. She says, “We can’t know the future, but we can educate ourselves and share with students the kinds of tools they will need.” With Eva’s guidance and insight, these students will use design skillfully to shape the future, whatever it may bring.

Technology, innovation and mentoring are all-important to Leslie McKinney who came to the Village through the Ageless Innovators* program. From childhood she liked math and science and began her career as an intern at Xerox. While there, she earned an M.S. in Engineering and Global Operations Management. She left Xerox in 2016 to become the Director for the Chicago Chapter of Black Women in Science and Engineering (BWISE), an organization focused on bridging the leadership gap for black women in STEM. She was part of Chicago Innovation’s Women’s Mentoring Co-op; a mentor for the Chicago Student Invention Convention; and for mHUB, Chicago’s first innovation center focused on physical product development and manufacturing. “We all need mentoring at every stage of life” Leslie says. “I like to be a resource to help people and to do that, you need to keep adding to your knowledge.”
*Chicago’s first multi-generational co-mentoring program, a joint venture of The Village Chicago and Chicago Innovation.

Village member Armand Cerbone’s childhood was filled with fear of what would happen if people found out he was gay. Throughout graduate school at Notre Dame where he graduated with a Ph.D in psychology, and as he began his practice, he kept his homosexuality hidden. After graduation in 1973, seeking a job at the American Psychological Association (APA) convention, he witnessed the founding of the Association of Gay Psychologists after they had protested at a conversion therapy presentation – an event that he says, “turned the key to the lock on my closet.”

Armand is motivated by a desire to make life better for the next generation LGBT individuals, working against the stigma that permeates all aspects of their lives. Armand has served on the Village board and started the Village’s LGBTA (A for Ally) Committee. Armand’s work as a change agent, advocate and leader have resulted in policy changes within APA and in laws addressing discrimination. He continues to work addressing issues of discrimination and social justice for the LGBT community and people of color.