active exchange of insight + innovation

Maria Hibbs has extensive experience in the corporate, philanthropic and non-profit sectors, including senior leadership in Fortune 500 firms and innovative social-change initiatives.

She became Executive Director of CLX upon its founding. Prior to that she served as Executive Director of the Hive Chicago Fund for Connected Learning at The Chicago Community Trust since 2014. The Fund merged with the Hive Chicago Learning Network, an initiative of the Mozilla Foundation, in 2017 to form CLX.

Before her work with the Fund, Maria led The Partnership for New Communities, a coalition of business, civic, and philanthropic CEOs, for almost a decade. Also housed at the Trust, The Partnership encouraged civic leaders to bring their thought leadership, passion, and financial resources to Chicago’s sweeping plan to transform public housing.

Maria’s corporate experience includes four years at energy distribution and transmission company NiSource Inc. as Vice President, Corporate Communications, and 13 years at Inland Steel Industries where her final post was Director of Public and Governmental Affairs.

Maria holds a B.A. in Journalism and English from Valparaiso University, an M.A. in Journalism from Ball State University and a Ph.D. in Public Policy Analysis from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Sana Jafri is a program officer with the Chicago Learning Exchange (CLX). During her tenure with CLX, Sana's accomplishments include creating the City of Chicago's first festival for experiential learning entitled Remake Learning Days Chi, developing organizational wide strategy, securing new funders, launching the City of Chicago’s first digital media and technology landscape scan, as well as generating a communications strategy for local and national outlets.

Sana has diverse personal and professional experiences that are knitted together by an emphasis on improving lives and communities through racial equity and social change. Her previous professional experiences include working in development and at a philanthropic consulting firm that conducted program development and evaluation for foundations and nonprofits internationally and nationally, working with the Clinton Foundation, advancing community development and Muslim issues with Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN) as well as serving as a journalism and English teacher in Chicago and India.

Interested in learning more about systems change, Sana completed her Master's in Public Policy and Administration with an emphasis on early childhood education from Northwestern University. Sana received her undergraduate degree in secondary teaching from the University of Illinois at Chicago. During her free time, she is writing a dual-language children's book and enjoys spending time with family.

Vanessa Johnson has extensive experience effectively supporting executive and middle management level staff in the corporate and philanthropic sectors. As the administrative coordinator of the Chicago Learning Exchange (CLX), she provides programmatic, resource development and administrative support to the Co-Founder, Executive Director, Director of Growth and Advocacy, and Director of Community. As part of her administrative responsibilities, she coordinates internal operations and outsourced functions to ensure efficiency of operations across the organization. Vanessa also serves as an officer of CLX in the capacity of Secretary.

Prior to her work with CLX, Vanessa provided administrative support for The Chicago Community Trust’s Vice President of Development and Donor Services and staff where she coordinated support for all Donor Relations and Community Engagement Committee activities; and for The Partnership for New Communities, a coalition of business, civic and philanthropic CEOs, where she provided programmatic and administrative support to the Executive Director and staff. In that role she developed and maintained highly effective databases, and established and implemented procedures for handling official and highly sensitive documents. Her corporate experience comes from working her way from a stenographer to an executive administrative assistant for the Vice President of Corporate Communications of NiSource Inc., an energy distribution and transmission company.

Vanessa holds an Associate’s Degree in Business Management from Indiana State University.

Kiara Hardin is currently a Program Associate for Partner Support at CLX. Most recently, she comes to CLX as an independent contractor for the Economic Awareness Council and the North Lawndale Restorative Justice Court. There, Kiara gained extensive knowledge of recognizing learning through badging.

Kiara completed a year of service as an AmeriCorps Vista at Roosevelt University working in the Office of Experiential Learning and the Policy Research Collaborative. While there, she constructed promotional materials to increase student and faculty participation in experiential learning programming and fostered existing community partnerships.

Throughout her career, she hopes to bridge the gaps between exposure and access within underserved communities, specifically in education and workforce development. She aims to disrupt systemic blockades through advancing innovative and collaborative partnerships to curate economic opportunities. During her free time, Kiara has served on the associate boards for BUILD Chicago and The Red Cross of America and participated in the Obama Foundation's Community Leadership Corps. Kiara graduated with her Bachelor of Art in Communication from Western Illinois University and her Master of Science in Public Service Management from DePaul University.