Staff
Joel Bookman, Managing Director, 312-422-9554, send him an e-mail
Joel Bookman is the Managing Director of the Institute and also serves as Director of Programs for LISC Chicago. In his role as Director of Programs, he oversees the work of LISC staff in its New Communities Program, the Great Neighborhoods Program, Elev8 education initiative, and its Centers for Working Families.
Joel has worked in the field of community and economic development in Chicago for the past 35 years. He has served as a consultant in strategic planning, economic and community development, and nonprofit management since 1981. Bookman holds a master's degree in urban planning and policy from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Eileen Figel, Director, 312-422-9568, send her an email
Prior to joining the Institute, Eileen Figel served as Mayor Daley’s First Deputy Commissioner for the City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development. For more than 20 years, she has provided community planning, development and public policy services to community organizations, municipalities and developers across theUnited States. Her professional experience includes community revitalization, environmental planning, business and economic development, capital improvement planning, and land use and zoning.
Figel holds a master's degree in urban and regional planning from the University of Illinois, and a bachelor's degree in operations research with a minor in mathematics from the University of California at San Diego. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners.
Jim Capraro, Senior Fellow, 312-559-1218 send him an email
Jim Capraro brings 35 years of community organizing and development experience to his work at Capraro Consulting and the Institute. In the early 1970s he worked as a community organizer pursuing the passage of the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) and the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA.). From 1976 he became the founding executive director of the Greater Southwest Development Corp. (GSDC).
GSDC was designated by the National Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation as a national model for commercial revitalization, named by LISC Chicago an Outstanding Community Development Organization and selected by Bank of America as a winner of the Neighborhood Excellence - Community Builder Award. Capraro was one of 25 community leaders nationally to receive the LISC 25th anniversary Mike Sviridoff Leadership Award. He was named a James A. Johnson Fellow by the Fannie Mae Foundation and Chicagoan of the Year by Chicago Magazine.
In 2010 Jim retired from that GSDC to concentrate on his national consulting work. Capraro is also a community development website design consultant and is owner/operator of www.cdwebsites.net.
Jake Cowan, Project Manager. 312-422-9565, Send Him An Email
Jake Cowan is the Business Manager for LISC MetroEdge and a Project Manager for LISC’s Institute for Comprehensive Community Development. He has led more than 25 commercial market assessments in the last four years, successfully helping communities leverage their assets and resources to attract new investment to their communities, assist businesses with growth and expansion and direct resources towards critical marketing and cleanup programs to make markets retail ready. He has facilitated trainings for LISC programs on topics such as retail attraction and interpreting and using market research.
Prior to coming to MetroEdge in April 2007, Jake was an Independent Consultant working on community indicator projects. His work with the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center (GNOCDC) to develop new methods for estimating population using United States Postal Service databases received national attention. Jake also provided technical assistance to community based organizations working on recovery issues inNew Orleans. In addition, Jake worked as a consultant to the Urban Institute where he managed an evaluation of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Making Connections Program, a ten-city comprehensive community development initiative. From 2001 to 2006 Jake worked at the Urban Institute as a Research Associate where led trainings on using data for advocacy, planning and resource development, in partnership with the Washington D.C. Mayor’s Office.
Jake holds a Bachelor’s degree from Truman State University and a Master in Public Affairs from Indiana University-Bloomington. He recently earned certification as an Economic Development Finance Professional from the National Development Council.
Loreal Mallett, Training Coordinator, 312-422-9569 send her an email
Loreal Mallett manages all aspects of the Institute’s extensive training activities, ranging from webinars to on-site conferences in Chicago and other cities. In addition, Loreal supervises the contracts of Institute’s consultants and works closely with the Institute’s Director and consultants on nearly all aspects of Institute business.
Prior to joining the Institute in September, 2010, Loreal was the Program Coordinator for the Public Building Commission of Chicago. Earlier, she served as an Administrative Assistant to the Commission’s Director of Planning and Project Resources. She began her career in city government in 2006 in Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development. Loreal has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Robert Morris College.
Carl Vogel is an editorial consultant for organizations working in the public interest. He is the editor of the publications for the Institute: The website, newsletter and Journal of the Institute for Comprehensive Community Economic Development. Vogel also provides editorial support for LISC Chicago's five Smart Communities portals. He has been the editor of The Neighborhood Works and City Limits magazines, and senior account executive at Valerie Denney Communications, where he managed public relations projects for clients such as the Chicago Public Schools, Illinois Poverty Summit and the Healthy Building Network. He has a bachelor's degree from Northwestern University in economics and political science.
Gordon Walek, Communications Manager for LISC Chicago & member of the Institute’s Steering Committee.
Prior to joining LISC/Chicago in May, 2008, Gordon Walek was a senior communications officer for the national LISC office (based in Chicago) involved in an array of LISC-related public relations activities, including editing publications, developing national and local media outreach strategies, and linking public relations efforts at the program site level to the national LISC message.
Previously, he worked on LISC and National Equity Fund projects as an account executive at MK Communications. He also developed communications strategies for the Chicago Police Department as it implemented a community policing philosophy. For more than 20 years, he was a newspaper reporter and critic, until he joined LISC in June 1999.