Our Boards.

Mark Rosenberg is a Senior Vice President, Investment at UBS Financial Services Inc in Chicago, IL and is a Certified Portfolio Manager (CPM®).  Mark is currently Chair of the Mikva Challenge National Board of Directors after serving 5 years as Chair of the Finance Committee and most recently as Treasurer.

Mark serves on the Board of Directors of the Albert Pick Jr. Fund, a foundation that supports small community Chicago nonprofit organizations in the areas of civic and community building, culture, education, and health and human services.  He was Treasurer and Chair of the Investment Committee for 6 years.

Mark holds a B.A. degree from the University of Missouri. He joined Mikva Challenge as a board member in 2015 with the encouragement of his father-in-law, Abner Mikva.  Mark has been a Financial Advisor for 37 years, providing families with comprehensive financial planning and investment management.  He also sits on the Board of the Albert Pick Jr. Fund, a grant making Foundation that was an early donor to Mikva Challenge.  He is married to Rachel Mikva, one of the original “Mikva kids.”

Randy Kinder is Head of Taft Hartley Strategy at EnTrust Global, one of the world’s largest alternative investment providers. He is the former President of the AFL-CIO Investment Trust Corporation (ITC) and spent nearly 22 years working on behalf of America’s Labor movement both at ITC and the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust. In addition to serving Mikva Challenge, Mr. Kinder is an Executive Board Member for Holtz’s Heroes Foundation. He is a proud graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. As a student-athlete at Notre Dame, Randy participated in football and track and he enjoyed a short NFL career with the Green Bay Packers & the Philadelphia Eagles after college. Mr. Kinder and his family reside in Washington, D.C.

Cynthia Wong is a proud Mikva Challenge alumna from the South Side of Chicago. A former banker, management consultant, and nonprofit executive director, she’s now a philanthropic leader based in San Francisco focused on initiatives to advance racial and economic equity. She works with impact-oriented funders and investors to develop new products, programs, and business models.

Currently, she’s partnering with the senior leadership and team at the Seattle Foundation on a new strategy and operating model for community philanthropy. She previously led the Bay Area office of the nation’s largest community development financial institution (LISC), invested in underserved communities as a banker and impact investor at Morgan Stanley, and has also worked with large corporations, foundations, and nonprofits on solving mission critical issues as a strategy/management consultant.

Ken Adams attended public schools in Yonkers, NY before earning his undergraduate degree
from Yale University and a law degree from the University of Chicago, where he worked as a
volunteer in Congressman Abner Mikva’s 1970 campaign for re-election. After law school he
spent two years as Congressman Mikva’s Legislative Assistant in Washington. He spent the next
47 years practicing law, pursuing justice through litigation on behalf of individuals and
organizations including hundreds of workers suffering from asbestos disease, tens of thousands
of victims of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, and dozens of U.S. companies victimized by international
price fixing cartels. Since retiring from active law practice Ken has provided pro bono assistance
to an environmental organization that supports litigation aimed at holding fossil fuel producers
responsible for their fair share of the damages resulting from global warming and climate
change. He is one of the founders of Mikva Challenge, and has served on the Advisory Board of
DC Mikva Challenge since its inception. Ken and his wife, who reside in Washington DC, have
two adult daughters and three grandsons. Ken’s principal hobby these days is tournament
poker. He also writes about and teaches poker.

Stefanie Cruz is a strategic communications advisor and Founder & CEO of the DigiGeeks Collective. She has over 15 years’ experience mobilizing millions of individuals to action across national social movements including the Women’s March, Families Belong Together and the March for Our Lives.

Stefanie was one of the first digital strategists on Capitol Hill as the Director of Digital Media for Congressman Sander Levin and the Ways and Means Committee. Worked in partnership with the Democratic task force to support and encourage Members of Congress and Committees to embrace digital and social media tools to share legislative updates and create online communities.

Most recently, she served as the Vice President of Marketing and Digital at America’s Promise Alliance.

Sonari Glinton is a journalist and podcaster known for his role in breaking Volkswagen’s diesel
emission scandal and for his work on public radio shows such as NPR’s Planet Money, All
Things Considered, CodeSwitch, and Ira Glass’s This American Life. He’s also hosted and
produced the popular podcasts “Bring Back Bronco” and “Shattering the System.” For his
work covering business and politics, Glinton has received a variety of awards, including The
Alliance for Women’s Gracie award, an Edward R. Murrow Award for investigative reporting, and
a Sigma Delta Chi Award for uncovering corruption at Cook County’s Juvenile Temporary
Detention Center. Sonari first learned about the Mikva Challenge as a young producer covering
a candidate forum. Glinton is currently writing a book about race and the economy titled
Blackenomics.

Rachel Graham is the Director of Programs for the Lefkofsky Family Foundation in Chicago. In this role, she oversees the Foundation’s education grantmaking and runs Success Bound, the Foundation’s middle grades initiative. With a deep focus on middle grades, the Foundation believes that students in this developmental stage will thrive if they have access to supportive learning environments that allow them to explore who they are and who they want to be in the social, economic and civic world.

Success Bound is a free middle school program enhancing those middle school environments. Rachel serves as the Co-Chair of the Youth Guidance’s Working on Womenhood Advisory Council and is on the Local School Council of Otis Elementary School in Chicago.

Rachel believes that young people will change the world, and has a long standing passion for enabling young people to be at the table when decisions that effect them are made.

Previously, she created the Youth Program for Chicago Ideas, which during the course of five years empowered thousands of high school students to spark ideas into action and make change in themselves, their schools and their communities. Prior to her role at the Lefkfosky Family Foundation, Rachel worked as a school psychologist in a suburban elementary school. Rachel has a Masters in School Psychology from Northeastern University in Boston.

Daria L. Hall is an executive vice president in the Washington, D.C. hub of Fenton and the head of the
firm’s DEIJ+ Team. She also co-chairs Fenton’s internal DEI Task Force. Daria brings more than 20 years of
experience to her position, working in-house and with agencies in the corporate, nonprofit and
government sectors. An award-winning communications leader, she possesses skills in community and
partnership engagement, integrated communications, narrative and message development and strategic
planning. The majority of her work focuses on racial justice and DEI, education/youth development and
philanthropy. Some of those clients include: Black Voters Matter, Hope Credit Union, the American
Association of Community Colleges, The A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation, to name a few.

From 1978 – 1980, Mr. Kanter served as a Legislative Assistant to former Congressman Abner J. Mikva (D-Ill.). In that
position, Mr. Kanter provided support to Congressman Mikva with respect to activities related to his position on the House
Judiciary Committee. In particular, Mr. Kanter was intimately involved in efforts then underway to reform the Federal
Criminal Code. Mikva subsequently became the Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Circuit, and then served as White House Counsel to President Clinton.

From 1980 – 1983, Mr. Kanter served as Special Assistant to the National Association of Attorneys General. In that position,
he represented the interests of the State Attorneys General in Washington, D.C. in the criminal justice and environmental
arenas. In particular, Mr. Kanter was involved in the legislative efforts to reenact the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and
to enact the original Superfund Legislation.

From 1983 – 1985, Mr. Kanter served as the Staff Director of the House Rules Committee’s Subcommittee on Legislative
Process Chaired by the late Congressman Gillis W. Long (D-La.). He also lent considerable support to the activities of the
House Democratic Caucus, which was also Chaired by Congressman Long. In particular, Mr. Kanter was intimately involved
in the effort to provide a new debate format that was first used during the Democratic Primary in New Hampshire in 1984, and
was moderated by Phil Donahue and Ted Koppel. He was also involved in authoring a House Democratic Caucus publication
called Blueprint for America which served as the basis for several subsequent Democratic Platforms and the policy efforts of
the Democratic Leadership Council. Congressman Long passed away in early 1985.

From April 1985 through June 1986, Mr. Kanter served as Managing Director of The Investors’ Washington Service, an
investment advisory company specializing in providing advice to large institutional clients regarding the impact of federal
legislative and regulatory decisions on debt and equity markets. Clients included Amoco Oil, AT&T, Bankers Trust, Chase
Manhattan Bank, General Motors, and J.C. Penney.

Mr. Joel Kanter has served as President of Windy City, Inc., a privately held investment firm, since July 1986.
From 1989 to November 1999, Mr. Kanter also served as the President, and subsequently as the President and Chief Executive
Officer of Walnut Financial Services, Inc., a publicly traded company (NMS: WNUT). Walnut Financial’s primary business
focus was the provision of different forms of financing to small business, by providing equity financing to start-up and early
stage development companies, providing bridge financing to small and medium-sized companies, and providing later stage
institutional financing to more mature enterprises. The Company was sold to Tower Hill Capital Group in 1999 in a
transaction valued at approximately $400 million.

Mr. Kanter serves on the Boards of several companies including Fibralign Corporation, which has developed and
manufactures a collagen-based proprietary scaffolding technology that can mimic human tissue structure in a way that allows
repair of tissue, blood vessels, and nerves; Orpheus Biosciences, Inc., a life sciences company that has developed a novel
approach to addressing autoimmune diseases by targeting the auto reactive cells that cause the adverse problems; Primal
Therapies, Inc., which develops naturally safe, non-toxic biofilm solutions to various health problems in the elder care, home
care, animal care, and agricultural markets that arise from the communities of bacteria and viruses that coat most living and
nonliving surfaces, which the National Institute Of Health estimates cause 80% of infections; Rheos Medical, which has
developed a new ventilator for use in hospitals that will allow critical care patients to take many drugs using inhalation therapy
rather than narcotics, therby avoiding the delirium and dementia side effects; and Thesus Health, which has developed a
device that ensures much greater compliance for at home patients, in part by tracking that medication is taken, and in part
through frequent telehealth visits.

Mr Kanter is also a current Trustee Emeritus and past President of the Board of Trustees of The Langley School in McLean,
Virginia, a former Trustee of the Georgetown Day School in Washington, D.C., and of the Union Institute & University, the
Country’s first Online University. He has served as the Board Chair of the Independent School Chairpersons Association and
remains a Board Member there. And, Mr. Kanter is also the current Board Chair of the Black Student Fund in Washington,
D.C. He also serves on the Board of the School of Science & Engineering at his alma mater, Tulane University, as well as on
the Board of their newly formed Innovation Institute. And is the Board Co-Chair of the Kennedy Center’s National Committee

For The Performing Arts, which oversees their Arts Education Programs, which the Kennedy Center spends more on than any
other organization in the world.

In the political arena, Mr. Kanter serves as the Advisory Board Co-Chair of the Johns Hopkins Center For Gun Violence
Solutions; and on the Board and Executive Committee of Voices For Progress; as well as on the Brookings Institution Council.

Farissa is an author, producer, and 20-year marketing executive. In 2008, Knox started her first
company. RLM was a full-service advertising agency that specialized in integrated marketing,
advertising and communications that solved business goals and needs. With services that spanned
market, consumer and product research, strategy, paid advertising and creative, Knox and her team
of 20+ diverse marketers, serviced clients across sectors that included Health + Wellness,
Education, Business + Financial Services, as well as Political Campaigns.

Additionally, Farissa launched WhatRUWearing (WRUW) Productions in 2012. The production
house focused on creating original television shows and films. The company’s first original show was
the reality series, PRGirl, focusing on young women in major markets living and working in the world
of fashion, beauty, and lifestyle public relations, of which Farissa is the Creator, Executive Producer
and Co-Director. PRGirl can be viewed on Amazon, Tubi and PLEX streaming platforms.

Farissa is the author of Love, Sex and Friendship: In No Particular Order, a light and bubbly memoir
capturing her twenties working, living, and loving in New York City, getting her start in advertising,
falling in and out of love- overarchingly, capturing the sparks of who she is today. Knox’s book is
currently available on Amazon, Books-A-Million and Barnes + Noble online. Knox also serves on a
series of nonprofit boards including the Joffrey Ballet Company, Cause Strategy Partners, Mikva
Challenge and True Chicago.

Farissa currently serves as the President of COACT Agency, a creative and digital marketing firm
specializing in brand development, storytelling, experiential, digital strategy, founded by Billy Dec in
2017. Joining the team in November of 2023, Knox plays a pivotal role across all pillars of the
business, supporting department leaders in efficient and effective outputs, identifying growth
areas within the business, and creating additional process + procedure for the desired growth of
the business over the next few years. In her direct management of the Accounts Department,
she is the driving force behind the success of the Account Management team as well as Client
Strategy.

Dr. Kenann McKenzie-DeFranza is the Founder of Aspiring Spirit, LLC consulting group which includes the well-known podcast.  Her background and expertise includes civic engagement research & practice, organizational consulting,  PreK-12 and higher education professional development on subjects such as educational practices, policy, administration, and leadership. At the Federal education level, she served as Executive Director for the National Board of Education Sciences in the US Department of Education for several years. Dr. McKenzie also is noted as the inaugural Director of the Generous Listening and Dialogue Center founded at Tufts University. She now serves as an Associate Professor of Education Practice and Director of Academic Innovation & Strategic Partnerships at Gordon College, MA.

Collectively, she has worked for over two decades in the education sector as a college academic counselor, researcher, lecturer, policy analyst and a high school administrator, and now as a full-time academic faculty member.

In her civic life, she is a Rotarian, serves on several non-profit boards, is an elected official on the Beverly Massachusetts School Committee, and serves as President of the newly founded North Shore Branch of the NAACP ‘23-’25.

In 2022, she was recognized with the Heroine Award by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Commission on the Status of Women.

Dr. McKenzie has a BA from Cornell University, M.Ed., from the University of Virginia and Ph.D. from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and Teachers College.

Dick Meyer has spent more than 35 years in journalism as a book author, reporter, television producer, editor, executive and columnist. At CBS News, NPR and BBC News, Meyer was an early leader in building high quality digital news and integrated newsrooms.

Dick is the author of the 2008 book on American culture and politics, Why We Hate Us: American Discontent in the New Millennium (2008) and also wrote a critical assessment of Reaganomics, Running for Shelter (1985).

After many years as an executive at nonprofit and for-profit news organizations, Dick returned to full-time writing and reporting in 2014 as the chief Washington correspondent for Scripps News, where he wrote a syndicated column, news analysis for Scripps’ properties nationwide and hosted occasional podcasts.

He is the recipient of an Alfred I. du Pont-Columbia University Award (1998), an Investigative Reporters and Editors Award (1998) and a Sigma Delta Chi Society of Professional Journalists Award (1998) for reports that led to the identification and disinterment of the remains of the Vietnam soldier once in the Tomb of the Unknowns, in Arlington National Cemetery. For his online work, Meyer and his teams have been honored with a du Pont Award a Peabody, EPpy awards from Editor & Publisher magazine, an Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio-Television News Directors Association, an Online News Association Award, Emmys and numerous Webby Awards.

Laura Miller (she/her) is a digital strategy advisor to some of the world’s most influential women
about how to use their platform for social change.

Laura has built and led teams in government, non-profit organizations, and political campaigns,
including leading social media for Michelle Obama, Susan Rice, the White House Office of Digital
Strategy, and in the U.S. Senate.

Her digital strategy firm, Social for Good, has led strategy for civic leaders and social influencers
including Melinda Gates, Ashley Judd and Emily Oster.
With more than 12+ years of experience, she sits at the intersection of civic engagement, community
organizing, and movement building. She uses the power of online social platforms and digital
organizing tools to lift powerful stories and help give people the resources to more fully participate
in social causes. She led notable campaigns including Michelle Obama’s Becoming book tour, March
for Our Lives, and Families Belong Together.

Laura recently served as the interim executive director for When We All Vote and continues to serve
as an advisor through the 2024 election cycle, leading in the fight for voting rights and working to
register and turn out voters across the country, especially voters of color and young people.

She is a proponent for the well-being of other women in progressive politics and has been working
on ways to ensure better support for those who may be experiencing burnout.

She is a 2022 New Leaders Council Fellow and former Harvard Ash Center fellow and graduate of
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Laura grew up in a proud union home and hails from Woodstock, Illinois.

Miles Sandler is the director of engagement-education in Public Affairs for the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, where she serves as an advocate and constituency builder for the Foundation’s key education outreach programs. Through storytelling, strategic communication, and authentic engagement, Miles works to enhance awareness and drive action to improve educational and life outcomes for children that deserve exceptional opportunities.

Previously, Miles worked with the National League of Cities and supported city leaders from over fifty communities in building equitable city initiatives to improve postsecondary completion rates, increase access to quality afterschool and strengthen city and school relationships.

Miles graduated with an MPA from Baruch College and a BA from the State University of New York (SUNY) New Paltz. She is a 2014 National Urban Fellow, a 2018 Surge Institute alumna, and 2019 Executive Ascent leader.

Saúl Sarabia runs a political consulting firm called Solidarity and has a part-time appointment at the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, where he focuses on the Future of Work in a Decarcerated California. His firm led electoral outreach strategies to elect a progressive prosecutor in Los Angeles County.

Saul is an LA native who began his work as a community organizer focused on racial justice and the legal system in 1999 at the Community Coalition in South Los Angeles where he led successful campaigns to organize grandmothers and relatives caring for children whose parents were incarcerated or struggling with addiction.

He also pioneered organizing formerly incarcerated people with social service providers, their clients, and family members of system-impacted people and has been an advisor to the LA chapter of All of Us or None, a national association of formerly incarcerated people fighting to change laws that discriminate against people who have been arrested or convicted, since its inception.

Previously, he taught Chicano Studies at UCLA to involve students in community organizing. He led the Critical Race Studies program at UCLA Law School, training a new generation of legally trained social justice activists. He believes strongly that partnering student and community leaders is crucial to social movement building.

Jackie has spent her life activating people and mobilizing resources to create a more equitable
world. Her exposure as a young attorney to the complexities of the juvenile and criminal legal
system set her on a trajectory to challenge the status quo and be a voice for equity.

Professionally, Jackie is an executive coach, facilitator, and the founder of Abloom Ventures.
Abloom helps leaders and management teams operate more effectively — often increasing
awareness, sophistication, focus and accountability. Individuals across sectors rely on Jackie as
a trusted sounding board to help them make informed strategic decisions and develop into
stronger leaders.

Jackie received a certification in executive coaching from Columbia University. Previously, she
was part of leadership teams at the Aspen Institute and the University of Chicago. She is
licensed to practice law and served for two years as a judicial clerk to the Honorable Mary L.
Mikva.

Jon serves as the Deputy Director of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors and is based in the Chicago office. He works with individual, family, institutional, and corporate donors across the Midwest, around the country, and around the world. In his time at RPA he has worked with a number of donors on climate change and environmental conservation; supported the work of foundations re-tooling strategy in post-bankruptcy Detroit; helped a family foundation in Chicago design a strategy to support the city’s infrastructure of small and mid-sized theaters; worked on a team assessing a foundation’s internal staffing structure with a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion; and assisted a multinational company develop partnerships with organizations around the country that help young people access higher education.

Previously, Jon was Donor Services and Initiatives Manager at the Santa Fe Community Foundation, where he managed the Foundation’s LGBTQ and Native grant programs, oversaw a project that uses crowd-sourced giving to support public school projects, and managed Foundation events and communications. Before joining the Santa Fe Community Foundation he was a Research Associate for the Peter G. Peterson Foundation in New York City, where he managed major projects focused on health care policy, national security policy, and youth engagement. Jon has also worked at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and was on the staff of President Obama’s 2008 campaign.

Jon received a B.A. from The University of Chicago in 2004 and a Master’s in Public Administration from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University in 2010. He served on the planning committee for the 2013, 2014, 2016, 2020, and 2023 conference for Funders for LGBTQ Issues. He serves on the board of Crossroads Fund, a public foundation that funds racial, social, and economic justice in Chicago; Mikva Challenge, a national civic engagement organization that brings young people into the democratic process; and the Just Transition Fund, an intermediary organization that supports economic transition efforts in coal-impacted communities in Appalachia, the Midwest, and the Intermountain West. He was a member of the 2020 class of the Emerging Leaders program at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.