Howard Dubin
Chair
Howard S. Dubin, a graduate of Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, serves on several other non-profit boards in addition to acting as treasurer of the Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy. He is treasurer of Sigma Delta Chi Foundation, the Chicago Headline Club Foundation, and the Howard & Ursula Dubin Foundation, and he is chairman and treasurer of Manufacturers’ News, Inc., in Evanston, Illinois.
Dan B. Conley
Board Member
As founder of the public relations firm Beacon Communications, Dan has worked for more than twenty years with corporate and government clients across North America, Europe and Asia providing business development-focused public relations and marketing services. He has served as a trustee at Goodwill Industries and the Sherwood Academy of Music. Dan is currently on the National Governing Board of Common Cause where he is the Chairman of NGB Nominating Committee. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan and lives with his wife Susan and children Catherine and William.
Edison W. Dick
Board Member
Edison Dick is a lawyer in private practice with a focus on public international law. Mr. Dick has served as General Counsel for the National Association of Marine Services (NAMS) since 1973. From 1968 to 1988 Mr. Dick was a partner in the law firm of Quinn, Jacobs, Barry & Dick (Washington Office of Chicago law firm). From 1976 to 1999 Mr. Dick served as Attorney Consultant to the American Bar Association's Section of International Law and, since 1979, as Executive Director of the American Bar Association's International Legal Exchange (ILEX) Program. From 1999 to 2005 he was Chair and/or Co-Chair of the Section's United Nations Activities Committee. From 2005 until 2007, he was Deputy Policy Officer for the Section
Mr. Dick was President of the United Nations Association/National Capital Area from 1992 to 1995. Since 1995 he has served as a Board Member of the United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA/USA). Mr. Dick was Chair of the Association's Advocacy Committee since its inception in the year 2000 until 2007. In 2007 he became Chair of the UNA's Committee on the World Federation of UNAs (WFUNA).
Mr. Dick is a graduate of Yale University and the University of Virginia Law School.
James M. Houlihan
Senior Advisor
Jim Houlihan founded All-Circo in 1980 and was co-owner and president until divesting his interest in the firm to become Cook County Assessor in 1998. While serving as assessor for 13 years, he earned praise for developing an accurate and effective office while providing much-needed clarity to the assessment process. In addition, he worked tirelessly towards both short-term and long-term property tax reform.
Jim has forged solid working relationships across all levels of government during his more than 40 years of public service, advocacy, and consulting. Prior to founding All-Circo, Houlihan served as an aide to Chicago Mayor Harold Washington and represented a district on Chicago’s north lakefront in the Illinois House of Representatives from 1972-1978. Most recently, he was appointed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel to the Commission on Chicago Landmarks. Jim is a graduate of St. Mary of the Lake Seminary (Mundelein, Illinois) with a B.A. in Philosophy (1965) and an S.T.B. in Theology (1967). He currently resides in Chicago with his wife, Ann Tighe
Daniel Hynes
Board Member
Hynes was first elected Illinois Comptroller on November 3, 1998 at the age of 30. At the time, he was the youngest elected statewide constitutional officer in Illinois, since William Stratton was elected Treasurer of Illinois in 1942. Since first entering office in 1999, he was the first Comptroller to establish a "Rainy Day Fund" for Illinois as a way to secure funding for the state whenever there is a slowdown in revenue. Hynes also spearheaded bipartisan reform of laws governing the state's private cemeteries and funeral homes (which his office regulates) in 2001, the most extensive overhaul of these industries in 25 years. Hynes has run for the United States Senate and Governor of Illinois. and current works for Ariel Investments as a senior vice president to aid in client services, marketing and business development.
Aurie Pennick
Board Member
Aurie Pennick, a native Chicagoan, is an attorney. In 2016, she retired from the position of Executive Director and Treasurer of the Field Foundation of Illinois, Inc., where for over twelve years she was directly responsible for grant making management and oversight for approximately sixty million dollars in foundation assets.
From 1992- to 2002, Ms. Pennick was the President and CEO of the Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities, the nations only fair housing organization founded by Martin Luther King, Jr in 1966.
In 1984, Mayor Harold Washington appointed her to the Chicago Police Board. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degree in the Administration of Criminal Justice from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and her law degree from John Marshall Law School.
Wayne Whalen
Secretary
Mr. Whalen was an elected delegate, and chairman of the drafting committee, of the Constitutional Convention that wrote the Illinois Constitution of 1970. In a 1984 poll of lawyers by the Chicago Business Digest, he was named one of the 10 best corporate lawyers in the city. He was selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America 2012 and Crain’s Chicago’s Who’s Who 2012, where he is one of 30 leaders (only two lawyers) who have been on the list for 20 years. Mr. Whalen was one of four lawyer appointees by the Illinois Supreme Court to its Blue Ribbon Committee, which reviewed and recommended a detailed revision of the court’s procedures for supervising and disciplining Illinois lawyers. He is also the board chair of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation and a member of the board of the Stevenson Center.