About Community Allies
Community Allies advances systemic change by empowering communities to define and address the problems that impact them.
We go beyond community engagement, empowering communities in decision making, facilitating collective impact, and uplifting locally-owned and BIPOC-owned businesses.
At Community Allies, we believe that consultants are in a unique position to model new approaches that not only address communities’ immediate issues but also disrupt the systemic structures holding them in place.
We do this by:
Deliberately shifting power and resources to historically marginalized populations
Promoting policies and practices for economic equity
Helping those working for social change to forge bonds of trust and shared purpose across past divides so that they can amplify their impact and feel less alone
We’re not in the business of gatekeeping. Instead we continually seek to shift our resources, connections, and knowledge over to the communities we serve.
Community Allies is Chicago-based and woman-owned, founded in 2016. We work with non-profit, government, community, social enterprise, and philanthropic leaders. We focus at the community level, but our work in a multitude of cities brings a wealth of catalytic best practices. Our consultant teams are former or current economic and community development practitioners who know the joys and challenges of actually doing the work.
Ellen has twenty five years of experience as a practitioner and advisor of community empowerment, equitable and localized economic development, and collective impact. She brings thoughtful and strategic insights to her clients, with a fierce commitment to putting historically disadvantaged communities in the driver’s seat for decision making.
“Ellen has an unwavering commitment to equity and amplifying community voice, which shines through in her facilitation style and her policy and program recommendations. While she’s at home making a formal pitch to policy makers, Ellen’s decades of experience at the grassroots level are always front and center. She is a delight to work with: funny and laid-back while definitely getting the job done.”
Ellen has led trainings in her Radical Inclusion model of community engagement in cities across the United States, and she authored National Main Street’s “Community Engagement for Main Street Transformation” guidebook. She is a skilled designer and facilitator of community empowerment processes, from small teams to large town halls.
“Ellen is one of the most thoughtful, strategic, and pragmatic leaders I’ve met. Her thought leadership and practical implementation have influenced communities all over the world.”
As executive director of the Andersonville Chamber of Commerce in Chicago, Ellen was a pioneer of the “Buy Local First” movement, and she has championed economic localism as a speaker and consultant in cities across the country. During her tenure, the Andersonville neighborhood revived and gained international acclaim for its thriving business district and its use of economic localization, place-making, and environmental sustainability as economic revitalization strategies.
Ellen occupies a unique niche of working on the ground in economic development as well as collaborating with regional and national thought leaders on economic policy issues. For ten years, she served on the board of directors of the national Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (now Common Future). She has served on the City of Chicago’s Mayor’s Small Business Advisory Task Force, Retail Advisory Committee, and “We Will Chicago” comprehensive planning effort.
As a trusted speaker and writer on the subjects of community empowerment, neighborhood commercial district revitalization, and economic localization, Ellen’s writing can be seen in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun Times, Crain’s Chicago Business, and YES! Magazine. More information about Ellen as a speaker: Speaking and Expertise
Ellen’s engagement and facilitation training includes Art of Hosting, the Systems Leader Academy on collaborative process design and facilitation, Center For Performance and Civic Practice Institute on civic dialogue, and the Interaction Institute for Social Change’s Facilitation for Racial Justice program. She is a member of the International Association for Public Participation and the International Association of Facilitators.
A faculty member at Roosevelt University's Masters of Arts in Community Development and Action and Masters in Public Administration programs, Ellen teaches courses in community development, economic development, history and theory of urban planning, and community empowerment. She has a master’s degree in Urban Studies from Loyola University.
When she’s not building other communities, Ellen is fostering a community of musicians by teaching harmony singing at assorted music camps and playing with her band, The Twilight Stealers.
As a small firm, we have the flexibility to individualize teams for each project, bringing in some of the most innovative thinkers and doers in the field. Our most recent and frequent collaborators include:
Tomás is the president of the California market of Chicanos Por La Causa, where he creates opportunities for individuals and families to surmount structural inequities that perpetuate injustice and inequality. He is also president of Concerned Capital, a social benefit corporation dedicated to helping private companies create and save jobs in Southern California. Tomás was the project lead in Community Allies’ California small business ecosystem work, and he collaborated with Community Allies as part of Tools for Equitable Acquisitions in Manufacturing.
Jamee was the founder and former executive director of Lowcountry Local First in Charleston, South Carolina. Jamee works to level the playing field for local independent businesses, develops innovative strategies for nonprofits and government agencies to work together, creates collaborative spaces, and provides opportunities for all to prosper. Jamee partnered with Community Allies to develop the San Antonio Local First study and recommendations.
Tracy is the CEO of Lewis & Associates, a small, Black woman-owned firm based on the southside of Chicago. Lewis & Associates provides resource development, technical assistance, strategic planning, community engagement, and project management services to nonprofits, small businesses, government entities, and philanthropic organizations. Tracy brings nearly twenty years of experience in community and economic development and small business support services. She is currently a workshop presenter and mentor with SCORE Chicago. Community Allies and Lewis & Associates partnered to lead community engagement for an eight-city study of small business support ecosystems for business owners of color. Tracy is the project co-lead for Community Allies’ support of the San Antonio Small Business Ecosystem Coalition.
Jenny brings her social work and activist background to her project coordination activities at Community Allies. She is involved behind the scenes in nearly every Community Allies initiative. She is currently in the Masters of Social Work program at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Vicki is the founder of Prospera Partners, a consulting firm that works with localists, small business owners, social entrepreneurs, and nonprofits on thoughtful business planning, systems change, transformational leadership, and more. Vicki designs and facilitates BIG (Bold Impact for Good) retreats, workshops, and communities of practice that inspire community leaders and social entrepreneurs to take transformational action. Community Allies has partnered with Prospera Partners on multiple projects, including the Wallace Center Good Food Network Training and the Foodlab Detroit strategy sessions.
Martin is CEO of Argyle Advising, a comprehensive economic development firm specializing in planning, program design, and organizational development. Martin has devoted his life to thoughtful, innovative economic development, serving as executive director of Uptown United and the Uptown Chamber of Commerce in Chicago. His public sector experience includes time as an economic development coordinator with the Economic Development Bureau of the City of Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development. He has worked with organizations such as Common Future (formerly the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies) and the Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce.
