Meet our leaders

Nakisha Hobbs, a Chicago native, and fourth-generation educator began her journey in community organizing and education as an undergraduate student at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In response to the negative impact of high-stakes testing, Nakisha mobilized a group of peers to develop an African-centered tutoring program designed to empower marginalized youth. Nakisha continued her passion to address inequities in education by co-founding It Takes  A Village Family of Schools in 2004 and Village Leadership Academy (VLA) in 2007. 

Recognized as a leader in education, Nakisha was tapped in July of 2018 to lead the State of Illinois’ Office of Early Childhood for the Illinois Department of Human Services. In 2020, she transitioned back to ITAV, now serving as Chief Executive Officer. Some of her areas of expertise include Strategic Planning, Educational Leadership, Legislation, Family & Community  Engagement, Public Speaking, Budget Administration, Grant Writing, and Advocacy work.

Gwendolyn Harris is a third-generation educator and native of Chicago’s West Side. She began her journey as an educator at the age of 14 serving as an afterschool tutor at Beacon Neighborhood House. Gwen went on to receive a BA in Elementary Education and a Master’s in Curriculum and Leadership from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Gwen received National Board Certification for grades K-9 in 2002. Disenfranchised with the low achievement of children entering her middle school classroom while working for the Chicago Public Schools, Gwen founded It Takes a Village Family of Schools in Chicago’s Humboldt Park community in May of 2004. Her goal is to ensure that children have the foundational skills necessary to excel in elementary school. Gwen has served as an infant/toddler teacher, preschool teacher, site director, and program director.   Gwen has also served on the Women’s Board at Dusable Museum and currently serves on the Board of Directors for “Stop the Pain”. Gwen is a licensed spiritual teacher for the Universal Foundation for Better Living.

Anita Andrews-Hutchinson, M.P.H has successfully envisioned, facilitated financing, and implemented strategy behind the growth of ITAV’s organizations.  Through the ITAV Family of Schools, she manages the care and education of over 1000 children and employs more than 160 staff members. Anita not only believes that high-quality education is a universal right, but it is also critically important for all children to have exposure to developing leadership skills that can traverse any discipline. In 2015, Anita and a group of amazing women who believe that childcare is an essential service co-founded Child Care Advocates United, a non-profit professional organization for child care providers and early childhood educators in the State of Illinois.  Representing over 300 small businesses, Anita has been instrumental in not only promoting industry excellence by supporting providers in delivering high-quality educational services to children and their families; but also representing those businesses as their advocate in State and City commissions and forums. Through the work of education, institution building, and advocacy, Anita’s goal is to improve those industries so they are systematically beneficial to all.  She is also a loving wife and proud parent of three amazing children.

Val Arnold is native-born Chicago, wife, and mother of three.  Professionally, she is Certified Public Accountant, who is passionate about serving organizations that demonstrate and create change within the Chicagoland metropolitan area.  She operates a multidisciplinary firm that focuses on small to mid-size accounting, audit, and tax services for businesses, governments, and not-for-profit organizations. Prior to becoming a CPA, she was an Operations Manager with McDonald Corporation where she provided expertise in operational efficiency with balancing profitability for multimillion-dollar restaurants in Illinois and Indiana. Val is a member of the America Institute of Certified Public Accountants, The Illinois Certified Public Accountants Society, and The National Black Certified Public Accountant Society, and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated.  Currently, she serves as the Board Secretary for the Southland Chapter of the Illinois CPA Society, and the Southland Arts Not for Profit Organization.  She is the wife of 26 years to her high school sweetheart and mother of three beautiful daughters.

Osei David Andrews-Hutchinson, B.S. joined It Takes A Village as the Director of Technology in 2008. Osei has also served as Village Leadership Academy’s French Teacher, instructed the Leadership Development curriculum for 1st – 8th Graders, and developed and implemented VLA’s World Scholars Program from its inception in 2010. Prior to coming to ITAV, Osei spent over 15 years in the field of IT in various roles with a number of multinational corporations, large nonprofits, and small businesses as well. In addition, Osei taught IT courses at the college level with the International Academy of Design and Technology as an Adjunct Faculty member. Graduating from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a B.S. in Engineering-Computer Science and an International Minor in French Studies, Osei has also been consistently committed to youth leadership and community development. As a National Board Member of the American Friends Service Committee, Osei helped form a formal youth track in the U.N. Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa in 2001, coordinated African Rites of Passage programs throughout the country, and has been a committed member of the Rotary Club of Chicago Southeast since 2001, serving as Chicagoland’s first African American International Officer to Rotary in 2015-16.

Darrell Brown, B.S., a graduate of Northern Illinois University with a Public Health degree, started his career in Early Childhood Education as a summer worker at a child care center out of Governor’s State University at the age of 16. Since then, he has worked as an infant-toddler teacher, pre-K teacher, Site Coordinator for a Before and After School program for youth ages 5-12, as well as a curriculum and instruction teacher coach for Early Head Start. During his time working with Early Head Start, he gained experience working with environment rating scales, became certified as an Infant and Toddler CLASS observer, and served as a trainer. As a trainer, he developed many of his own training in topics around School Age Programming, Language development for infants and toddlers, and how to use Creative Curriculum and Teaching Strategies Gold. His experiences lead him to work on a teacher practice research project called “CONSTRUCT Coaching” with Educare out of Phoenix Arizona. Since being with ITAV, Darrell has had the pleasure of training the Education coordinators in CONSTRUCT Coaching, bringing a common language to all teaching staff at ITAV. In Darrell’s free time, he loves to travel, dance, act, sing, and perform in local theater projects.

Aurelia Daniels completed her Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, Illinois, and her Master’s Degree in Social Work at Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois. Prior to her work at It Takes A Village Family of Schools, she set the foundation of her career working in the field of mental health and community outreach. Most recently, she developed the social services and community outreach department of Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church (Fellowship Chicago). Growing up on Chicago’s southside, Aurelia developed a passion for uplifting Black and Brown people in underserved areas. Through her creative approach to social services and her unique ability to build quality relationships with the population she serves, Aurelia leads ITAV’s Family Support Team in providing life-changing social services to the student, families, and community of It Takes A Village family of Schools. Fun fact: Aurelia loves LIVE music and sang in a gospel recording choir called Joshua’s Troop for 17 years.

Ambitious and passionate about early childhood education, Tasia Evans, M.Ed, B.S. graduated from Northern Illinois University with a B.S. majoring in Child Development with an emphasis as a Child Life Specialist. She later earned her Master’s Degree in Teaching and Learning Early Childhood Education from DePaul University. Tasia started working for It Takes A Village in 2010. She has served as a Teacher Assistant, Lead Teacher, Head Start Director, and as her current role of Program Director.  Tasia is a certified CLASS observer for infants and preschool-age children. Tasia has a passion for working with children, staff, and the families that she serves. 

Kenneth joined ITAV Development in 2022. He has a decade of intergovernmental affairs and real estate experience working with agencies such as the Chicago Housing Authority, the Public Building Commission, Chicago Public Schools, the 2nd Congressional District of Illinois, and the City of Chicago. Before joining ITAV Development, Kenneth worked as a Senior Analyst with the Business and Economic Incentives Group at Jones Lang LaSalle, where he assisted with site selection and location analytics. Kenneth has been a licensed real estate broker for over ten years. He earned a BA in History from Fisk University, an MPA – concentrating in Public Management from the University of Illinois – Chicago, and a Certificate in Financial Decision Making from the University of Chicago. Mr. Gilkes also has a Master of Science in Real Estate from Roosevelt University.

Lameeka first begin her work in grassroots organizing when she was an undergraduate at the University of Illinois at Chicago.  She was instrumental in helping to starting the Mary McLeod Bethune Saturday School program.  She also started an after school tutoring program at the James Jordan Boys and Girls Club.  Always having a passion to help children and giving back to her community, once she completed her B.A. in Liberal Arts and Science, she began working for It Takes A Village. During her time here she has served in several positions, including teacher assistant, teacher, director, and eligibility manager. Lameeka truly has a passion for the families that we serve.

M. Ekundayo Harris is the principal of Village Leadership Academy.  She is a Teach for America alum with over ten years of experience in the profession and an extensive background in culturally responsive teaching, curriculum design and instruction, and educational leadership.  She has provided strategic education consulting for administrative teams and school sites across Chicago and remains committed to addressing educational equity and the eradication of the school-to-prison pipeline.  Harris received her EdM in curriculum and instruction from the University of Illinois Chicago and her BA from Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, where she received both the Unity Award and the Juliet Evans Nelson Award for her contributions to the college.  She is a proud board member of Sisters in Cinema, a nonprofit organization with an inclusive mission to entertain, educate, develop, and celebrate Black girls and women media-makers and future generations of storytellers and their audiences. 

Kyla Hill started at ITAV Family of schools as a summer worker in 2011 with Village Leadership Academy. After receiving her Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2014, Kyla took a full-time position as the Executive Assistant to the CEO of ITAV. During her time as an EA, Kyla helped streamline the day-to-today operations at VLA, created marketing and promotional materials, and cultivated a welcoming environment for students, staff, and families. In 2018 Kyla transitioned to the Polsky Center of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Chicago where she developed operational strategies to increase efficiency throughout the organization. 

Returning to ITAV Family of Schools as the Senior Director of People Strategy and Operations, Kyla is energized to cultivate a team culture that not only understands what ITAV’s goals are but can pinpoint how they contribute to reaching those goals. Kyla understands the importance of a healthy company culture, efficiency, and innovation in the workplace and she is happy to bring her knowledge and expertise of these areas back to ITAV. 

Jevon Hobbs is the Facilities Director for It Takes A Village Family of Schools.

Lana Kennebrew, M.S., M.B.A. is currently the Director of Human Resources for It Takes A Village Family of Schools since 2020. She is also the project leader for a strategic management goal that supports the overall organizational goals and the project leader for the Human Design Center project with ITAV.  Lana holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Tuskegee University, an M.B.A., and an anticipated 2022 Masters in Human Resource Management. Her specialty is Process Improvement and Change.  She has extensive Quality Engineering/ Management experience in various industries. She has managed various Quality systems that include the CAPA (Corrective Action/ Preventative Action), Internal Audit, and the Customer Complaint programs using risk management tools. She became a 6 –Sigma Green Belt that later saved her previous employers thousands of dollars by managing projects that followed basic Six Sigma/ root cause analysis techniques. Since working at ITAV, Lana has managed semi-monthly payroll submissions and led digital initiatives with filing and onboarding.

Dr. James is a sociologist with over 15 years experience in higher education faculty, administrative and community engagement roles.  Most recently, he served as the Director of Service Learning and Director of Undergraduate Studies for the UIC Sociology department. In addition to teaching courses in Sociology and Black Studies, in 2015 he successfully piloted a dual-enrollment initiative with Whitney Young High School in an effort to attract academically ambitious students to attend UIC. He has extensive experience working with Black, Native American, Latinx, first-generation, and LGBTQIA students. He is an alumnus of Hampton University and University of Illinois Chicago, a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc, and is a Life Member of the Association of Black Sociologists.

As Director of Youth Services, Dr. James oversees the VLA After School programs, the Freedom School project, and a variety of positive youth development activities to support student safety and well-being.

Jasmine Span attended Roosevelt University where she earned her Bachelor’s of Arts in Elementary Education. She went on to attend The University of Illinois Chicago where she earned her Master’s in Educational Leadership with a concentration in Curriculum and Instruction. Jasmine is a Chicago native who loves this beautiful city. She has traveled nationally and internationally to Africa, Europe, Mexico and many places here in the states. Jasmine has been a part of the ITAV family for over 15 years and has 17 years of educational experience. Jasmine started teaching kindergarten in September 2008 at Village Leadership Academy and trained many teachers during her time there. In  2011, she had the distinct pleasure of facilitating our literacy program and coaching teachers across all sites to strengthen the pipeline between our daycare centers and Village Leadership Academy. She has also facilitated countless professional development trainings and workshops around kindergarten readiness. Jasmine now serves as The Director of Education. In her free time, she enjoys singing, writing songs, spending time with family. Most recently she released her first debut album, Loving the City to Life, dedicated to Chicago!