Foundation welcomes Williams, Khimm and Ezeigbo

Williams comes to Joyce from the Heartland Alliance, where he led its campaign for criminal justice reform in Illinois as a policy advocate, researcher, coalition builder and community organizer. His work included testifying before lawmakers in Springfield and mediating between business and community leaders after the recent racial unrest in downtown Chicago.

He is currently completing his doctoral thesis in sociology at Loyola University, examining how housing insecurity affects formerly incarcerated people as they re-enter society. He holds a master’s degree in sociology from Loyola and a bachelor’s degree from Concordia University.

He also has campaigned for ending “permanent punishments” and restoring rights to people with criminal records.

Williams will join Joyce’s Gun Violence Prevention and Justice Reform team, tasked with refining its reform initiatives to address the issues and ideas that have surfaced in the current reckoning over racial disparities and police reforms. His first day will be Nov. 2.

Khimm has worked for 13 years across the nonprofit, philanthropic, academic, and commercial arts sectors in Chicago, developing collaborative cultural programs and partnerships. She currently is managing director at EXPO CHICAGO, where she provides strategic direction and operational oversight for the annual international exposition for contemporary & modern art at Navy Pier.

She was previously manager of strategic communications at the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago, worked at the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, and was a Rhodes Curatorial Fellow at the Art Institute of Chicago. Khimm has a master’s degree in Art History from the University of Chicago and a bachelor’s from Wesleyan University in Connecticut.

As Joyce’s Culture Program director, effective Nov. 30, Khimm will collaborate with community leaders and other partners throughout Chicago and the Great Lakes region to advance The Foundation’s culture grantmaking strategy, anchored in support of BIPOC-led organizations and artists. She also will oversee the Foundation’s signature Joyce Awards.

Ezeigbo is a data and research strategist with ample experience in K-12 education. She comes to Joyce from a fellowship with Harvard University’s Center for Education Policy Research and the Academy for Urban School Leadership, where she worked with Chicago principals and teachers to analyze data and develop strategies to help students succeed.

Prior to that, she served as the senior research manager at the University of Chicago Poverty Lab, overseeing the postsecondary education portfolio. She also worked in the Office of the Chicago Board of Education and at Chicago Public Schools. Ezeigbo holds a master’s degree in education policy and management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a bachelor’s degree in public policy studies from the University of Chicago.

This month, Ezeigbo joined Joyce’s Education & Economic Mobility team, which supports policies aimed at increasing economic opportunities for low-income young people and young people of color through equitable access to schools and jobs. Her portfolio seeks to align K-12, higher education, and workforce systems and to expand dual credit and work-based learning opportunities.