Susana Vasquez

Susana Vasquez serves as the executive director of the Chicago office of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). LISC Chicago is a citywide leader in the development and implementation of innovative neighborhood-based initiatives in such areas as health, safety, education, digital access and economic development. Ms. Vasquez joined LISC in 2003 as a program officer and soon became director of the Chicago office's most ambitious effort—the New Communities Program (NCP), a ten-year initiative to build organizational capacity and support comprehensive community development across 16 neighborhoods. As director of that program, she helped define and expand the field of place-based initiatives, while raising more than $60 million from private and public sources to support neighborhood work. Ms. Vasquez began her career in Chicago as a community organizer with the Chicago Rehab Network, the Metropolitan Tenants Organization, and The Resurrection Project, where she became the deputy director. Ms. Vasquez earned a master's degree from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. She has a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Ms. Vasquez serves on the Advisory Committee of the University of Chicago Crime Lab, the Board of Directors for ChangeLab Solutions, the Aspen Institute’s Dialogue on Public Libraries Advisory Committee, and World Business Chicago’s Neighborhoods Strategy Committee for the Plan for Economic Growth and Jobs. She is a past board member of the Law Project, the Crossroads Fund and the Chicago Foundation for Women.