Ebony Campbell is the Director of Youth Opportunities at the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA). CHA is the third largest housing authority in the nation and provides affordable, decent, safe, and stable housing to help communities thrive and 63,000 low-income households increase their potential for long-term economic success and a sustained high quality of life. Since 2012, Ebony has led the development and implementation of CHA’s strategy to close the opportunity gap and improve academic achievement by providing more than 8,000 of its youngest residents with greater access to quality out-of-school time programs and early work experiences with pathways to economic and social mobility.
Prior to joining CHA, Ebony worked for the City of Chicago to advance Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s mission to develop the employability skills of young people and create onramps to meaningful employment opportunities. Early in her career she worked for a TRIO Educational Talent Search Program and at the Midtown Education Center’s Metro Achievement for Girls, supporting first-generation, college-bound students through the design and implementation of programs to mitigate summer melt and prepare students to succeed in college.
Ebony holds a Bachelors of Arts in English literature and Italian language from the University of Illinois and a Master’s in Communications with a focus on managing complexity and collaborative leadership from Northwestern University. Ebony serves on the Leadership Council of Year Up Chicago and volunteers with Chicago Scholars through their Career Mentoring Program.
Ebony Campbell is a member of the Chicagoland Workforce Leadership Academy, Class of 2019, one of several Workforce Leadership Academies in localities across North America.
The Workforce Leadership Academies are part of the Economic Opportunity Fellows Network, a network of leadership and fellowship programs run by the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program. Within this Network, EOP connects national and local leaders from across sectors — nonprofit, government, business, philanthropy, academia, and more — to advance policies and practices with the potential to help low- and moderate-income Americans thrive in today’s economy. Learn more at as.pn/eofn.