Steve Bell is a firm founder at Goldberg Kohn and chaired The Real Estate Group from 1996-2006. During Mr. Bell's 35-year legal career, he has represented clients in a wide variety of businesses, including insurance companies, pension funds, commercial banks, and entrepreneurs.  Mr. Bell has lectured for the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education program. He was recently selected by his peers to be included in the 2006 edition of The Best Lawyers in America. Mr. Bell received his A.B. with honors from Wheaton College and his J.D. cum laude from Harvard University.
Steve has been a board member since 2006.

Kayla Cohen is the Associate Director of Organization Development for Kraft Food's Consumer Innovation and Marketing Services. Prior to joining Kraft, Ms. Cohen was the Director of Learning and Development for Underwriters Laboratories, was responsible for organization and process improvement for Accenture, andworked for Hewlett-Packard as a marketing engineer. She has a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of Illinois and a Master of Science in Organization Development from Loyola University. She lives with her husband and two children in the northern suburbs of Chicago where she is active member of her synagogue.
Kayla has been a board member since 2004.

IFYC Board Treasurer

Tarek Elmasry is a Director in the Chicago office at McKinsey Consulting. Currently he leads all recruiting efforts in the Midwest as well as serving clients in high tech, telecom and consumer products. Mr. Elmasry has historically led the Telecom & High Tech practice in the Midwest. Prior to joining McKinsey, Mr. Elmasry started and ran an advertising sales company. Mr. Elmasry holds a bachelor’s degree with honors in economics from the University of Chicago and a M.B.A. from Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management in Marketing and Finance. Mr. Elmasry is also very active in the community as a member of the Executive Club.
Tarek has been a board member since 2007.

IFYC Board Chair

As Vice President of the Commercial Operations Group at Exelon Corporation, Sunil Garg leads the business and strategic planning for Exelon’s $800 MM Business Services Company, as well as manages a portfolio of transactional services for Exelon, including payroll processing and accounts payable. Prior to joining Exelon, he was a research associate for The University of Chicago’s Chapin Hall Center for Children from 1994 to 1997 before becoming an assistant to Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley in 1997. In 1999, Mr. Garg was appointed a White House Fellow by President Clinton and served as a special advisor to the deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. He holds a BA and MBA from the University of Chicago and a master’s in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
Sunil has been a board member since 2005.

Dr. Tasneema Ghazi is a specialist in Child Development and reading (Curriculum & Instruction). She has studied at The Muslim University Aligarh, Allahabad, Harvard, San Diego and Minnesota. She has taught at schools and universities in India, the U.K, USA and Saudi Arabia. Dr. Ghazi is a founding member and Chief Program Editor of IQRA International Educational Foundation, a research-oriented organization that aims to respond to the need of Islamic education for modern young minds.
Tasneema has been a board member since 2006.

Anne C. Hallett consults on education, community, and philanthropy. She serves as director of Grow Your Own Illinois, founded and served as Executive Director of the Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Center for Neighborhood Technology and Community Organizing and Family Issues. Ms. Hallet co-wrote the Chicago Annenberg Challenge proposal which provided $49.2 million to Chicago’s school reform efforts. As Executive Director of the Wieboldt Foundation in Chicago, she co-chaired the Neighborhood Funders Group and chaired Chicago Women in Philanthropy. She also served as the founding Executive Director of the Chicago Panel on School Policy and chaired the Governing Board of the National Committee for Citizens in Education. She was Executive Director of Citizens Education Center in Seattle and was founder, chair, and chief lobbyist for Citizens for Fair School Funding which advocated successfully for school finance reform in Washington State.
Anne has been a board member since 2004.

James Halstead, OSA, is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at DePaul University in Chicago. He holds doctorates in religious studies and moral theology from the Katholieke Universitiet Leuven, (Louvain), Belgium. Before beginning doctoral studies, Fr. Halstead was assistant pastor in two American parishes. While completing his doctoral thesis, he was pastor of the Parish of Our Saviour, The Hague, Netherlands. For the past sixteen, Fr. Halstead has been a member of the St. Nicholas Parish, Evanston. Fr. Halstead is a member of the Midwest Province of the Order of St. Augustine and several professional organizations.
James has been a board member since 2006.

Mr. Irfan is General Counsel:IP/IT for the North American Division of Schneider Electric. Mr. Irfan has served as Chairman of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago and has contributed in a leadership capacity for over 20 years with Muslim community projects focusing on Media Affairs, Inter-faith & Civic Collaborations, Leadership Development, Strategic Planning, and Advocacy with Public & Law Enforcement Officials. He serves on the National Board of the Islamic Society of North America, the Executive Committee of the Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago, the National Advisory Board of the Bernardin Center for Theology & Ministry at Catholic Theological Union, and the Illinois Research Advisory Council for Criminal Justice. Mr. Irfan is a frequent speaker on Islam and the perspectives of Muslim Americans and has featured on national & international print, radio and TV media including NPR, CNN, ABC’s Nightline, BBC, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Mr. Irfan has received the Distinguished Community Leadership Award from the U.S. Dept. of Justice, the Distinguished Interfaith Collaboration Award from Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago, the Outstanding Religious Services Award from Imam W.D. Mohammed’s African-American Muslim Community, and the Community Service Award from the Muslim Bar Association. He has a M.S. in Computer Engineering from University of Illinois and a J.D. from DePaul University.
Kareem has been a board member since 2006.

Mr. Kinnamon serves as Chair of the Character Counts! Coalition,and the Josephson Institute of Ethics. He is on the Program Committee for the Points of Light Foundation, and is a member of the National Advisory Council of America’s Promise – The Alliance for Youth. He is a trustee of Aurora University and a member of the board of directors of the Interfaith Community Ministries Network. Mr. Kinnamon volunteers his time with several community and church organizations in Chicago. He serves on the board of the Uhlich Children’s Advantage Network, where he has also been a mentor for the past twelve years. He is active in St. Pauls United Church of Christ. After 38 years of service, Mr. Kinnamon retired as Assistant National Executive Director of the YMCA of the USA. He is an active speaker on topics regarding youth, character development, organizational culture change, team building, and creativity.
Ron has been a board member since 2004.

Rabbi London joined Beth Emet in July 2000, where she is deeply engaged in all aspects of congregational life. Ordained by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in New York City in 1996, she served as a rabbi at Temple Israel in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Before entering rabbinical school, she received a degree in applied mathematics from Brown University and worked as a computer analyst and management consultant. She has worked to strengthen ties between Chicago-area Jews, Christians, and Muslims, and founded an interfaith dialogue group. Rabbi London is a board member of the Chicago Board of Rabbis, the Chicago Area Reform Rabbis, and Chicago Peace Now. She serves on the Rabbinic Advisory Council for Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute, where she spends several weeks each summer as a rabbi-in-residence. Rabbi London is married to Danny London and has two children, Yonah and Liora.
Andrea has been a board member since 2004.

Harold A. Richman is the Hermon Dunlap Smith Professor of Social Welfare Policy Emeritus in the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration. Mr. Richman has been on the faculty of the University of Chicago since 1967 and served as Dean of the School of Social Service Administration from 1969 to 1978. He was the founding chairman of the University's public policy studies program from 1974-77 and received the University's Quantrell Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1990. He was the founding Director and currently a Research Fellow at the Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago. He is currently co-chair of the Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change and is on the boards of The John Gardner Center at Stanford University, The Michael Reese Health Trust in Chicago, After School Matters in Chicago, The Interfaith Youth Core in Chicago, The Children’s Institute at the University of Capetown in Capetown, South Africa, The Information and Research Center of the King Hussein Foundation in Amman, Jordan, The Brookdale Center on Children and Youth in Jerusalem, Israel, the SEED Foundation in Washington, D.C., and is chairman of the board of the Center for the Study of Social Policy, Washington, D.C. Mr. Richman was educated at Harvard University and the University of Chicago, and was a White House Fellow and Special Assistant to the Secretary of Labor from 1965 to 1967.
Harold has been a board member since 2006.

IFYC Board Treasurer

Senior Pastor Laura Truax has been on the pastoral staff at LaSalle Street Church for seven years and became senior pastor in 2004.  Rev. Truax has a Master’s of Arts in Pastoral Studies, with an emphasis in Spirituality, and a Master’s of Divinity from Loyola University.  Rev. Truax is a teaching pastor at the University of Chicago.
Laura has been a board member since 2004.