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Erika Dudley – President

Erika Dudley is the President of the Board of Directors for Urban Growers Collective. She is with the Civic Knowledge Project at the University of Chicago. A historian, artist, community organizer, and chef, her particular interest is the intersection of humanities, access, and food. Her academic focus is French History and Italian.

In addition to serving as President of the Board of Urban Growers Collective, she is a member of the Healthy Chicago 2025 Food Access Work Group, a member of the Chicago Food Policy Council, a trainer for Dismantling Racism in the Food Systems, and a board member of the Sunflower Project nonprofit. She also serves on the Faculty Advisory Board of the University Medical Center’s Comprehensive Care, Community, and Culture Program. She is the architect of the Museum Educators Program, a paid engagement program for Odyssey Project graduates and University of Chicago undergraduates at the university’s Smart Museum of Art begun in 2014.

She served as the 2015-2016 Interpreter in Residence at the Smart Museum with a focus on equity in the arts. She is a member of the museum’s education committee. Erika has also served on the Hyde Park Art Center’s Board of Directors since 2012 and is currently its Vice Chair. Additionally, she chairs: Education Committee, Public Programs Committee, and Community Accountability Committee. She serves as a co-chair of the Development Committee and Anti-Racism/Equity Committee. She has been a reviewer of the Center Program for the last four years.

She is a board member of the Chicago Art Department, chair of its Development Committee, and a reviewer of the CORE Residency.

Margot Pritzker – Secretary

Margot Pritzker is the Secretary of the Board of Directors of Urban Growers Collective. She is spearheading the creation of the Chicago Food System Navigator, an urban agriculture resource plan for the city. Pritzker is the founder of WomenOnCall, a skills-based volunteer match organization. She is chair of the Zohar Education Project Incorporated, established in 1995 to translate the Zohar, the mystical canon of Judaism, into English. This 20-year,12-volume project was completed in 2017.

Pritzker is a Trustee of the Aspen Institute, where she chairs the Leadership Programs Committee and a seminar moderator for the Aspen Global Leadership Network. As a member of the Board of Directors for the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and a member of the Advisory Board of America Abroad Media, she continues her involvement in international issues.

Margot and her husband, Thomas J. Pritzker, direct The Pritzker Architecture Prize which is considered the profession’s highest honor.

Margot resides in Chicago with her husband, Tom. They have three sons and three grandchildren. Margot and Tom’s extensive travel and knowledge of South Asia has resulted in one of the foremost collections of South Asian art. Margot holds a B.A. from Northwestern University and an M.A. from the University of Chicago.

Carrie Schloss – Treasurer

Carrie Schloss is the Treasurer of the Board of Directors for Urban Growers Collective. She is a Business Strategy, Analysis, and Optimization Manager for National Geographic Expeditions and Adventures by Disney. She also serves as an expeditions and logistics leader for group and VIP expeditions. Previously, Carrie worked in the finance industry as an Emerging Market Strategist in the US, Mexico, and the UK, and as a Chef, Instructor, and Culinary Consultant in the Chicago area, including publishing a cookbook.

Carrie has a BS in Finance from Miami University, an MBA in Finance and International Business from the University of Chicago, completed coursework, exams, and submitted her thesis for an MA in Art History at the University of Illinois in Chicago, and has an AAS in Culinary Arts from Kendall College.

Carrie has been on the Board of Urban Growers Collective since 2018. She was a Board member of Slow Food Chicago from 2012-2015. Carrie has also been actively involved with a number of Chicago theaters, including Steppenwolf Theatre Company, The Gift Theatre Company, and The Factory Theatre. Carrie has mentored students through volunteer work with PEAK and the Boys and Girls Club of Chicago.

Carrie is passionate about travel and food culture globally. She has traveled to 99 countries on all 7 continents and can read and speaks both Spanish and French.

Camille Kerr

Camille promotes workplace democracy through her firm, Upside Down Consulting. She specializes in designing innovative worker-centered legal structures, cooperative development with members of marginalized communities, policy advocacy and drafting, and supporting existing businesses to become worker-owned. Her clients are academic institutions, field-building nonprofits, labor organizations, social enterprises, and community groups promoting economic democracy.

Upside Down is currently supporting the development of a worker-cooperative food service contractor, ChiFresh Kitchen, which is owned and determined primarily by formerly incarcerated folks living on the South & West Sides of Chicago.

Camille is also currently a board member of the Interaction Institute for Social Change, a steering committee member for the Cooperative Professionals Guild, a member of the Council of Cooperative Economists, an executive fellow with the Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, and serves on the boards for EG Woode, Staffing Cooperative, and Certified Employee Owned.

Before starting Upside Down Consulting, Camille served as the Associate Director of The ICA Group, the Director of Field Building at the Democracy at Work Institute and the Director of Research at the National Center for Employee Ownership. She has a law degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Law where she was awarded a human rights fellowship and graduated cum laude.

Sheelah Muhammad

Sheelah Muhammad is a social entrepreneur, business model strategist, consultant and facilitator with over 2 decades of experience working across sectors in domestic and international markets to implement organizational and strategic solutions to advance social, economic, racial and health equity. Her proactive leadership style, high energy, and wide range of experiences have helped organizations and leaders think strategically, work collaboratively, build effective teams, enhance organizational effectiveness, and improve social impact. She is a skilled facilitator known for fostering and managing complex, multidimensional relationships.

Inspired by her father, a food sovereign activist and grocery-store owner who delivered groceries to under-served Chicago neighborhoods, Sheelah co-founded an award winning mobile produce market that quickly became a nationally recognized model for healthy food distribution, community empowerment, self-reliance, and resilience.

She previously served as program officer at Oprah’s Angel Network, where she helped create homes and reinvigorate culture and community for families displaced by Hurricane Katrina. She also developed and advanced the charity’s research agenda on social determinants of health.

Sheelah currently leads the Healthy & Safe Communities program area at the Steans Family Foundation in Chicago. Her work focuses on economic development through the advancement of Black entrepreneurship and meaningful work for historically excluded populations.

She received a D.N. from the National College of Naprapathic Medicine, an M.B.A. from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and a B.S. from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Jessi Pérez

Jessi Pérez is a people-centric professional, with experience developing and managing projects and programs for nonprofits with an inclusive lens, honoring the intersectional identities people hold. She currently works as the Associate Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Jessi’s work serving non-dominant communities continues to fuel her dedication to creating sustainable equitable change in systems and organizations.

Jessi is fluent in Spanish, and has over 15 years of experience as a rape crisis counselor. She is passionate about social justice and reproductive rights and justice. In her spare time, Jessi enjoys theater, baking, playing poker, and kayaking.

Board of Directors