ICE'S DIRECTOR
Robert Gannett
Robert has an A.B. from Harvard University and a M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago's Committee on Social Thought. He is the author of “Tocqueville Unveiled: The Historian and His Sources for The Old Regime and the Revolution."
Robert Gannett, the Institute's Executive Director, has worked as a community organizer in Chicago since 1972. During that time, he has helped residents address issues of redlining, property value protection, affordable homeownership, local school governance, restoration of publicly funded mental health services, and absence of after-school civics programs for middle school students. He worked with leaders, members, staff, colleagues, and partner organizations to help draft and pass the Chicago School Reform Act of 1988, the Home Equity Assurance Act of 1988, and the Community Expanded Mental Health Services Act of 2011.
He and his wife Joanne live in the Uptown community.
COMMUNITY ORGANIZER
Rapheal arteberry
Rapheal Arteberry worked with the Institute for ten years as a Community Organizer and Lead Facilitator of the Citizens Now program. He has helped the Institute on all of its current projects, including leading a team of interns to help create the West Side Expanded Mental Health Services Program in 2016 and the Bronzeville Expanded Mental Health Services Program in 2020. He worked with Housing Bronzeville on showings of the “Blueprint for Bronzeville” documentary, and oversaw five cycles of the Citizens Now Program at four schools in the North Lawndale community (Chalmers, Dvorak, Johnson & Penn).
He currently serves as Lead Community Organizer with the Institute’s partner, the Coalition to Save Our Mental Health Centers. He currently resides with his family in the Bronzeville community.
PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Tyler flechs
Tyler Flechs, the Citizens Now Program Director, has spent his entire career in education since graduating from Iowa State University in 2022 with a degree in English and Technical Communication. His work with the Institute began by piloting a Citizens Now Program with Creating Real Economic Destiny (C.R.E.D) in the Roseland neighborhood of Chicago, in 2023. With the success of the pilot program, Tyler has ushered in a new era of the Citizens Now Program, including successful classes at William Penn Elementary School, and Dvorak, as well as a summer program in collaboration with Family Focus at the Homan Square Community Center.
THE INSTITUTE'S BOARD
The Institute’s Board includes the following community leaders in Chicago’s communities:
Pat Vader
Pat Vader, the Institute's chairperson, grew up in the North Lawndale and Austin communities and currently resides with her husband in Montclare. She was active for 20 years as a founding Board member of the Northwest Neighborhood Federation and served as its secretary and real estate committee chair. The former director of the Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Pat currently leads the Institute's Board committee developing its Citizens Now Program.
She is most proud of being part of the Institute's current efforts to help Chicago residents "dream the dream and achieve the reality" of new mental health services, affordable homes, and action civics for 5th-8th grade students.
Vern Vader
Vern Vader grew up in the Logan Square community and currently resides with Pat in Montclare. During the 1980s, he was a founding Board member of the Northwest Neighborhood Federation, serving for eight years as its chair. He served for six years as a member of the Governing Commission of the Northwest Home Equity Assurance Program, helping to oversee the guaranteed home equity program that the Federation helped create.
Vern is most proud of the Institute's work in taking on City Hall and helping them realize there is more than one way to solve a problem.
JOYCE ZICK
Joyce Zick grew up in West Humboldt Park and currently lives in the Norwood Park community. She served as chair of the Citizen Action Program's Anti-Crosstown Coalition in the early 1970s and helped bring local community organizing to the northwest side as a chair of the Organizing Committee for the Northwest Side, founded in 1976. She worked for 30 years as a clinical therapist III at the city's North River Mental Health Center and is the current president of the Governing Commission of the North River Expanded Mental Health Services Program.
She is most proud of ICE for stirring the "fire in the belly" of communities across the city.
Jacquelyn Ingram
Jackie Ingram grew up in North Lawndale and currently resides there, after experiencing life in numerous other Chicago communities as well. After graduating from Northern Michigan University, and receiving her M.Ed. from Northern Illinois University, she taught elementary school and then worked in a variety of positions as a social worker, in the airline industry, and with SEIU. As a Young Christian Student, she always was committed to social justice and responded with enthusiasm to the chance to create a new mental health center on the west side.
Jackie is most proud of being in a position to give back to her community in concert with the Institute’s dedicated and forward-thinking leaders and staff.
Mark Higginson
Mark Higginson, the Institute’s treasurer, was raised on the southwest side of Chicago in the Beverly neighborhood and has been a lifelong Chicagoan. After graduating from Lawrence University he began a career in the real estate and construction industry. For the past 20 years, he has owned a construction and development company building and renovating housing throughout the Chicago area. He has improved Chicago neighborhoods by stabilizing and improving distressed properties.
Mark is most proud that the Institute is working to create affordable housing, develop mental health centers, and teach future community leaders about the importance of local engagement, all issues that matter most to Chicago's communities.
