After four years of leadership at Chicago Community Bond Fund, Keisa Reynolds is stepping down from their role as Executive Director. Watch this video to hear from Keisa directly as we celebrate their heartfelt and meaningful contributions to our CCBF team and to the community at large. We can’t say it enough, Keisa — thank you for all the ways you shaped this organization and our movement!

From the CCBF Board of Directors:

The Chicago Community Bond Fund Board of Directors would like to express deep gratitude and appreciation to Keisa Reynolds for their extraordinary leadership. After their first year as CCBF’s Deputy Director, Keisa graciously accepted the role of Transitional Executive Director and, later, Executive Director, during a time of profound social change. In their four years at CCBF, they guided staff through the challenges of working amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, racial justice uprisings, and the unexpected passing of a staff member, Malik Alim. Through all of this, Keisa created an environment of collective support with a steadfast commitment to CCBF’s values of wellness and abolition. 

Throughout their tenure as Executive Director, Keisa continued to maintain and cultivate organizational partnerships, ensure delivery of compassionate and holistic services to those impacted by pretrial incarceration, and spearhead the organization’s next steps upon the passage of the Pretrial Fairness Act. As Keisa takes on a new role as Project Director/Outgoing Executive Director until the end of 2023, we look forward to continued collaboration and the creativity and ingenuity they will bring to leveraging resources to uplift the abolitionist mission of CCBF.

This progression in the organization’s leadership will bring current staff members, Rachel Lyons and Gerald Polanco, into the roles of Co-Executive Directors. Having managed CCBF’s operations and programs, respectively, Rachel and Gerald will bring invaluable insight and expertise that will help lead CCBF’s work with a forward-looking, community-centered approach. The Board of Directors welcomes them and looks forward to their contributions.