Navigating Change: The Local Impact of President Trump's Early Days in Office

Brian C. Johnson has served as the CEO of Equality Illinois, the statewide LGBTQ civil rights organization, since 2016.  In this role, he leads efforts to build a better Illinois by advancing equal treatment & full acceptance of the LGBTQ community.

As CEO, Brian oversees the three non-profit entities that make up the organization, each with its own board of directors: Equality Illinois Institute, the 501 (c)(3) arm that focuses on education of the public, media and policy makers on LGBT issues; Equality Illinois, the 501 (c)(4) entity that advocates for the adoption of particular policies aimed at making Illinois a more equal and accepting place for the LGBTQ community; and the Equality Illinois Political Action Committee (PAC), which endorses and supports political candidates on the state and local levels who will champion a more equitable future for Illinois.

Prior to his time at Equality Illinois, Brian spent nearly two decades as a leader in social justice.  His passion for fighting for equity was catalyzed by having served as a first-grade teacher, and Teach For America corps member, in Baton Rouge, LA.  Seeing first-hand how systemic injustice impacted the lives of passionate and capable children, Brian committed his career to fighting to make sure America lived up to its promise as a fair and equitable country.

Brian came to Equality Illinois from Leadership For Educational Equity (LEE), where he served as the Vice President of Regional Impact.  In this role, he helped lead the nationwide efforts to recruit nearly 300 teachers and former teachers to become candidates for public office while simultaneously launching community led organizing efforts in a dozen cities across the country including Chicago, New York, Houston, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

Brian has served in a variety of leadership roles in non-profits throughout the country.  He served as the Executive Director of Teach For America in Los Angeles where he led the efforts to place and support nearly 800 effective teachers in public schools throughout Los Angeles.  He also headed up the Larchmont Schools, two racially and socio-economically diverse public schools in central Los Angeles.  Under his leadership, both schools were recognized as among the academically highest performing schools in the state of California.

Brian earned his AB, magna cum laude, from Princeton University, his JD from Stanford Law School, and his MBA, as an Arjay Miller Scholar, from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.  He is also Leadership Greater Chicago Fellow since 2020.  He lives with his husband Toby and their daughter Josephine in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Chicago.

Jen Walling has served as the Executive Director for the Illinois Environmental Council since January 2011, where she oversees the strategic direction and management of the organization and lobbies decision-makers on environmental issues. Jen is dedicated to building the power of Illinois’ environmental community to secure policy outcomes that protect the environment.

Over the last decade, Jen has worked to grow IEC staffing fivefold and increase the budget and number of member affiliates, all with a focus on serving and representing IEC’s affiliated organizations. With the board of directors, Jen worked to secure IEC’s partnership with the League of Conservation Voters in 2018, a national organization that has helped IEC network and build on a national level.

Jen has drafted, negotiated, lobbied, and passed hundreds of bills in Springfield while working to build the power, expertise, and relationships of the entire environmental community.

As a leader in climate policy, Jen has been at the frontline of lobbying and passing bills that will advance renewable energy and carbon emissions reduction, including the Future Energy Jobs Act in 2016, the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act in 2021, and laws to simplify local siting of utility solar and wind projects in 2023.

Jen has been a statewide leader in composting policy since 2009 when she worked to pass the first commercial composting law in Illinois. She has fought to protect state parks and natural areas by increasing funding to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, increasing recreation liability protections, and funding stewardship through the Natural Areas Stewardship Act.

In 2022, Jen was recognized by Crain’s Chicago 40 under 40. She is also a two-time winner of the Capitol Fax Golden Horseshoe, once in 2023 for best in-house lobbyist and again in 2014 for best do-gooder lobbyist. She is also an Edgar Fellow (2018), New Leaders’ Council Fellow (2011), and Truman National Security Project (2012).

Jen holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She also received a juris doctorate from the University of Illinois College of Law and is an attorney licensed to practice law in Illinois.

Sylvia I. Garcia serves as Chief Operating Officer for The Chicago Community Trust, the region’s community foundation, which is committed to building a Chicago region where equity is central, and opportunity and prosperity are in reach for all. Sylvia brings to this role two decades of experience at the local, state, and national levels working to increase access to economic opportunity in a diverse range of industries, including housing, transportation, education, and workforce development. 

Before joining the Trust, Sylvia served as the Director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO), where she led the state’s economic development arm investing in people, communities, and businesses to expand inclusive economic growth across Illinois. Prior to DCEO, Sylvia led WSP USA’s national planning strategy and grants consulting team working with clients to identify and secure resources for important projects across the country. She also previously served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief of Staff at the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), managing the day-to-day operations of the country’s second-largest transit agency. 

Before joining CTA, Sylvia spent nearly a decade working in Washington, DC. During her tenure, she worked her way up from serving as a budget analyst at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to being nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as Chief Financial Officer at the U.S. Department of Transportation. Sylvia also worked for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations. 

Sylvia has a bachelor’s degree in social science with a minor in Spanish from the University of Michigan and a master’s degree in public service management and public policy from DePaul University. 

Mary Meg McCarthy is the executive director of Heartland Alliance’s National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC), one of the nation’s leading immigrant and human rights advocacy organizations. Under her leadership, NIJC has grown to a staff of 50 who serve 10,000 immigrants and their families each year through an unparalleled network of more than 1,500 pro bono attorneys. With its unique combination of direct service, impact litigation, and advocacy, NIJC promotes due process protections before the U.S. Supreme Court, Congress, and the executive branch. NIJC is a founding member of the Illinois Task Force on Unaccompanied Immigrant Children, the Freedom Network, and the Department of Homeland Security-Nongovernmental Organization Enforcement Working Group, which NIJC co-chairs. Recently, NIJC spearheaded an innovative immigration court help desk for immigrants in deportation proceedings. Ms. McCarthy has testified before congressional committees on human rights and immigration detention reform, speaks frequently at national and international conferences on human rights and immigration law, and is regularly quoted in leading news outlets such as The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.

Ms. McCarthy has met with members of the Mexican Congress, academics, and civil society to address migration issues facing the region. She has toured detention centers throughout the U.S. and gathered evidence of chilling civil rights abuses which permeate the U.S. government’s immigration detention system. She is a commissioner for the American Bar Association Commission on Immigration and a member of the Midwest Coalition for Human Rights steering committee. Prior to joining NIJC in 1998, Ms. McCarthy practiced civil litigation and served as a pro bono attorney for NIJC’s asylum project. Earlier in her career, she worked in Chile helping local communities safeguard the rights of individuals living under a dictatorship.

She is a recipient of numerous awards, including the Chicago Inn of Court 2015 Don Hubert Public Service Award, Pax Christi 2013 Teacher of Peace Award, the Robert Bellarmine Award for distinguished alumni from Loyola University Chicago School of Law, the American Immigration Lawyers Association Chicago Chapter’s Joseph Minsky Mentor Award, Lawyers Trust Fund’s Esther Rothstein Award, and the Federal Bar Association’s Sarah T. Hughes Civil Rights Award. She recently delivered the keynote address at the University of San Diego’s Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies Trans-Border Institute’s 18th Annual Sister Sally Furay Lecture on the politics of immigration reform and refugee protection.