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.

Sam Dyson is Deputy Director of the Chicago Learning Exchange (CLX), a new non-profit working to make Chicago a connected community where all learning counts. He previously worked at Mozilla as director of Hive Chicago--a peer professional learning community for innovation in education--which is now an initiative of CLX. Sam leads CLX’s programmatic strategy to achieve our mission of inspiring and supporting innovation that equips digital-age learners and leaders to close Chicago's opportunity gap. His earlier work includes includes ten years of physics teaching experience and four years in educational administration at the Woodlawn Children’s Promise Community and the Chicago Public Schools. He is a 2007 recipient of the Golden Apple award for excellence in teaching and earned a B.A. in Physics from Yale University and an M.Ed. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Jessica Rosenberg serves as the Manager-Digital Learning and Pathways at Chicago Learning Exchange where she partners with city agencies, nonprofit partners, and employers to develop engaging learning experiences, pathways to opportunities, and digital credentials to support the development of 21st century skills and work-readiness among youth and young adults. She previously served as Managing Director for Research Partnerships at Teach For America; Director, Research and Communications at One Million Degrees; and as a Program Officer at the Illinois Humanities Council.

Jessica holds a Bachelor of Arts from McGill University in Montreal and Master of Public Policy from the University of Chicago. She currently serves as events data lead for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense-Illinois.

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 Executive Director, Deputy Director, Pathway Development Manager, Hive Chicago Learning Network Manager, Program Officer and Board of Directors. 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 collation 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 mainted highly effective databases, and established and implements 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 hold an Associate’s Degree in Business Management from Indiana State University.