Board Chair
Jeanna Bridges
Homewood Flossmoor Regional President

Harris N.A.

Ms. Bridges has over 25 years of experience in sales, management, operations, and human resources in the financial services industry. Her knowledge and expertise will be invaluable in her role as chair of the National Able Network’s board of directors. Accomplished at organizing, motivating, and mobilizing effective results-oriented sales teams, Ms. Bridges has served in many senior level positions at Harris. Recognizing her skill and talent as a strong team player who works well across organizational structures, Harris elevated Ms. Bridges to the executive team.  She currently serves as regional president of Harris N.A.  Ms. Bridges attended DePaul University in Chicago as well as Hunter College in New York.

Vice Chair

Sunny P. Chico

President, SPC Consulting, LLC

Sunny is president of SPC Consulting, a firm that provides consulting services to school systems and providers of educational services in the areas of diversity, reform, administrative innovation efficiency, staff development and training, and compliance with federal, state, and local education law.  She is the former Region V representative for the U.S. Department of Education for Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. 

Before entering public service, Sunny was executive director of Institutional Advancement for Waubonsee Community College focusing on maximizing enrollment, fundraising and managing the college’s foundation.  She also served as the assistant to the Lieutenant Governor for Education for the State of Illinois where she led the state’s School-to-Work effort.  Sunny worked with legislators to initiate educational reforms and created the Governor’s Human Resource Investment Council and served as its co-director.  She has also been a principal and an educator in the Illinois State School System. 

Treasurer & Chair, Audit Committee

Paul M. Cohen, Principal, Paul M. Cohen and Associates

Mr. Cohen spent over 30 years at Commonwealth Edison where he held numerous management positions in engineering, sales, marketing, corporate relations, and facilities, fleet and construction management. Mr. Cohen is an ardent volunteer with over 25 organizations benefiting from his goodwill and commitment to service, including: Adopt-A-School Chicago Public Schools, Children’s Museum of Chicago, Cook County President’s Office of Employment & Training’s Private Industry Council, Literacy Chicago, National Council on the Aging and YMCA Urban Programs. The very same skills that made him so successful in industry for building strong organizations, planning for success and building strong coalitions with community, civic and government officials have made him invaluable as a member of National Able Network’s board of directors. Mr. Cohen attended the Illinois Institute of Technology, Roosevelt University and the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

Secretary & Co-Chair, Board Development Committee

Gene Mackevich, Senior Vice President - Investments, Smith Barney (member of CITIGROUP)

Mr. Mackevich has spent 20 years managing three corporations, two of which were in the financial service industry.  He has contributed more than 25 years conducting investment seminars and 15+ years teaching adult education investment courses at Chicago-area colleges, and has established himself as one of the top 20 financial consultants in the U.S. and Canada, according to Registered Representative magazine. Mr. Mackevich has shared his investment philosophy with consumers via seminars, newspaper, and radio and television shows, including “Good Morning America,” “CBS Evening News with Dan Rather,” “The John Calloway Show,” and “Kup’s Show.”  He has been featured in many publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s Business Week, USA Today, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times and the Daily Herald and is the author of three investment books entitled Riches Without Risk,  Consumer’s Guide Safe Low-Risk Investments and The Women’s Money Book… How to Make Your Money Grow.  He has a B.S. from Michigan.

Chair, Board Development Committee

Michael A. Alvarez, Consultant, Alvarez and Associates

Mr. Alvarez has enjoyed a fast-paced career closely associated with local, state, and federal government activities that serve the interests of the citizens and businesses of the Chicago community.  He is responsible for communicating and negotiating with city, state, county, and federal elected officials on a variety of initiatives on behalf of constituents.  He joined the staff of Senator Barack Obama as Outreach Coordinator.  In that capacity, Mr. Alvarez provided strategic and political counsel to the Senator and his staff and served as liaison to various constituency and ethnic groups.  Prior to his position with Senator Obama’s office, Mr. Alvarez served as the Deputy Director for Community Relations and, subsequently, Regional Manager, for the Illinois Department of Employment Security in Chicago.  He has also worked on a variety of prominent political campaigns and was the Assistant to the Alderman in the 39th Ward of Chicago.  Mr. Alvarez has a Bachelor’s degree in Communication and a Master’s degree in Corporate and Managerial Communication, both from Northwestern University.

Howard Griffith

Sports Broadcaster/Former NFL Player

Howard Griffith, All-Pro fullback for the Super Bowl XXXII and XXXIII champion Denver Broncos team, is regarded as one of the NFL’s (National Football League’s) best blocking backs whose professional career spanned more than ten years.  Mr. Griffith’s athletic ability as well as his leadership skills on and off the field captured the attention of the national sports media and the respect of his peers. Mr. Griffith’s other league affiliations included the Buffalo Bills (member of the 1991 American Football Conference (AFC) Championship team), the San Diego Chargers (member of the AFC-Western Conference Championship team), and the Los Angeles Rams as a starting fullback in 1994. In 1995, Mr. Griffith was drafted by the Carolina Panthers as the eighth player overall in the expansion allocation draft.  He was the first player in the team’s history to score a touchdown both, rushing and receiving, and played an integral part in leading the team to their first NFC Championship Game. Mr. Griffith also set NCAA records with eight (8) touchdowns and 48 points in one game, becoming the third all-time leading rusher in Illinois history. To date, he holds one of the top five (5) receiving records.

Now retired from the NFL, Mr. Griffith has been working as a sports broadcaster. Currently one of the lead in-studio analysts for the Big Ten Network, he uses his professional expertise to give an analysis of the Big Ten Football Conference games. In addition, Mr. Griffith can be heard regularly on ESPN Radio Chicago, giving his expert opinion on all sports. Mr. Griffith also spends time on his various entrepreneurial and charitable ventures. Mr. Griffith attended the University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana), receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech Communications in 1991.

Grace Jenkins

President & CEO, National Able Network, Inc.

Grace Jenkins joined National Able Network, Inc., in February 2003 as President and CEO. Ms. Jenkins is responsible for overall management of the Illinois-based nonprofit agency among its nine principal offices in the Chicago metropolitan area, as well as service locations in Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. She oversees a budget of $18M and a staff of 130 full-time employees.  Ms. Jenkins has a wide variety of corporate management and military service experience. Prior to joining Able, she served as President and CEO of River Consulting, Ltd. specializing in market and product development and private equity financing. Ms. Jenkins also cofounded a wireless software infrastructure firm in 1999 and, as CEO, led the firm in developing the world’s first software platform capable of delivering integrated voice, text, and graphics over wireless.  From 1993 through 1999, Ms. Jenkins served in multiple executive-level roles at Motorola, Inc., including General Manager and Senior Director of Operations and Marketing for Motorola’s cellular infrastructure business. She was responsible for $250 million in revenues and 300 employees tasked with opening new markets for global cellular infrastructure products, strategic planning, marketing, and product purchasing and distribution.  Ms. Jenkins is also a military veteran with nine years of service as a United States Air Force officer. She worked as a missile design engineer on the MX (Peacekeeper) missile system and as a military jet pilot and aircraft commander with more 2,000 flying hours. Ms. Jenkins led the first pilot test team evaluating the C-17 cockpit design and served as director for foreign military exercises under the Joint Chiefs of Staff. She was awarded the USAF Commendation Medal, the USAF Meritorious Service Medal, and the Airlift Association’s Young Leadership Award.  Ms. Jenkins has an MBA in Finance and Marketing from Stanford University, an MA in strategic marketing from Webster University, and a BS in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Cornell University.

Jimmy D. Lee

Senior Consultant and Director, Sherman Consulting Inc.

As senior consultant and director, Mr. Lee is responsible for consulting with corporate clients on best practices impacting global growth, brand marketing, and conflict control. He has various leadership positions with federal government agencies and local organizations directing the economic development of minority and ethnic communities, with an emphasis on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.  Mr. Lee is recognized for achieving successful outcomes on issues of concern and importance, both locally and abroad, for Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.  In addition, his leadership skills positively effected market growth and development for the Chicago Chinatown Chamber of Commerce.  Mr. Lee has served as the director of outreach for political campaigns, structuring the political strategies for the incumbents.  He serves on several boards and advisory councils, focused on incorporating new perspectives and creative solutions for growth and expansion of the business communities.  Mr. Lee has a B.S. in Liberal Arts and Sciences with a concentration in Economics from the University of Illinois.

Trent Richards

Mr. Richards is an accomplished entrepreneur with several successful business and marketing ventures to his credit. Most recently, he became founder and president of an innovative, web-based debit card system customized for industry auto dealers and customers. In 2006, Mr. Richards’ firm, My Car Payment, LLC, merged with Debit Card Ltd, a front-end processing and management system for the ON TIME Debit VISA Card program and other prepaid card programs. He currently serves as a partner and board member.

Mr. Richards began his career as a teacher, then as a professional fitness trainer, coaching Chicago-area CEO’s of major corporations. These business relationships provided him opportunities to work with several major corporations between 1982 and 1996, gaining expertise in advertising, media relations, direct marketing, and special event promotion. In 1996, he co-founded the highly successful company, funbrain.com, the most visited K-6 educational web site on the market for young learners and teachers. In 2000, funbrain.com was sold to Family Education Network, Inc, then to Pearson Education, Inc., after it exceeded 100 million monthly page views. Mr. Richards continued as Funbrain’s chief marketing executive until 2002. During this same period, He also directed the marketing operations for the Chalet Hills Golf Club, sponsoring more than seventy-five major golf events.

Stephen W. Scheetz
Principal, Silver Lining Designs, Inc.

Mr. Scheetz brings over 30 years of professional experience in the management of highly diversified businesses as well as unique experience in leadership development, training and human resources to the National Able Network’s board of directors. A retired executive of Bank of America, Mr. Scheetz was responsible for leadership development for many of the bank’s important business units. During his tenure he also served for 15 years as a corporate banker, and was the founder and editor of the Bank of America Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, a premier quarterly corporate finance publication with worldwide distribution and recognition. Today, Mr. Scheetz is one of the founders of a new company, Silver Lining Designs, Inc., where he serves as chief operating officer.

Gary Scheier

Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer, Staffcv, Inc.

Gary Scheier is the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Staffcv, Inc., a software development company with offices in Northbrook, IL and Auckland, New Zealand.  SCV provides job matching and recruitment solutions to corporations, community based organizations and government agencies.  He has many responsibilities which include managing U.S. operations, capital-raising, and strategic partnerships.  Mr. Scheier was responsible for establishing the company in the US and securing its equity and debt financing.   He was VP of Business Development from 1997 to 2002 and later President of Telecom Wireless Solutions, an Atlanta-based company that provides engineering services to the wireless telecommunications industry.  From 1991 to 1997 Mr. Scheier was a partner at Weiss, Peck & Greer, a full service financial firm, where he was co-founder of their Quantitative Equity Division.  Mr. Scheier has a Bachelor’s of Economics from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and a Masters from Northwestern University.

David O. Stein

Managing Principal, Steinco Corporate Real Estate Advisors

In 1996 Mr. Stein founded the firm Steinco Corporate Real Estate Advisors  a Chicago based, national tenant representation firm that help office tenants determine whether a lease renegotiation, relocation, build to suit, or purchase strategy will meet the economic and physical goals of an organization’s specific facility needs.

National Able Network  |  312.782.3335  |  able@nationalable.org

National Able Network, the Able! logo and the stylized A are service marks of National Able Network.
All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners.
© National Able Network 2003.