Illinois Humanities 50th Anniversary Gala

Fairouz AbuGhazaleh has a passion for - and deep experience with - building community and strengthening civic engagement through dialogue and partner-centered programming. 

Fairouz has worked with immigrants and refugees in Champaign County and rural Colorado, and as a women’s rights advocate and journalist in the Middle East.

Fairouz enjoys spending time outdoors with her sons and relaxing with a good book when life isn’t too busy.

Nora Brooks Blakely founded Brooks Permissions in 2001 to license and promote the work of her mother, Gwendolyn Brooks, by producing programming and publications that demonstrate her continuing relevance.  

The company recently published the 75th anniversary edition of Annie Allen, the book that made Gwendolyn Brooks the first Black person to win the Pulitzer Prize.  For more information, go to gwendolynbrooks.net. 

A former teacher in the Chicago Public Schools, Ms. Blakely, founded Chocolate Chips Theatre Company (1982-2011), a theatre for young audiences, and was its Producing Artistic Director and primary playwright. 

Nora has released her first picture book, Moyenda and The Golden Heart (a Kwanzaa origin tale) and is hard at work on her next book for children.

Dulce Maria Diaz was born in a small town, Tumbiscatio de Ruiz in Michoacan, Mexico and raised in Chicago. She is a multidisciplinary self-taught artist.  Following her study of Business for Artists at the University of Chicago, Dulce founded an arts and education non-profit organization, S.H.E. Gallery (Sharing His Energy Gallery) in 2015.

Dulce graduated from Illinois Humanities’ The Odyssey Project year one and year two in 2023. Following her graduation, she was awarded a scholarship at the University of Chicago to study The Basic Program of Liberal Studies for Adults, a four-year scholar program with a focus on philosophy and humanity. She is excited to graduate in 2027.

In addition to running her non-profit, where Dulce serves as a director and curator, she is also an adjunct lecturer for the Art Institute of Chicago’s Gallery Activation Interpretation Department and works with other art and educational organizations such as Art Muse Chicago, Color Cocktail Factory, and Childhood Victories. She leads mural art clubs with Chicago Public Schools and is part of the Beauty Turner Academy of Oral History with the National Public Housing Museum.

Michael "Mike" Dorf is an election lawyer and Professor Adjunct at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He was special counsel to long-time Illinois congressman and national arts and humanities champion Sid Yates, an experience which led to his co-authoring “Clear It With Sid!,” a biography of Yates published by the University of Illinois Press.  

Mike directed the creation and drafting of Chicago’s first Cultural Plan, which was commissioned by Mayor Harold Washington.  His political clients have included Barack Obama, Lori Lightfoot, Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, and many other federal, state, and local public officials and candidates. 

Mike formerly served as general counsel to the Democratic Party of Illinois, as a member of the Illinois Community College Board, and for nine years as a board member of Illinois Humanities. He is currently a board member and President of the Gabriella and Paul Rosenbaum Foundation.

Erin Eveland is the Executive Director and founder of The Hub – Arts & Cultural Center in Rushville, Illinois. The Hub serves as both a Local Arts Agency and the anchor organization for Illinois Humanities’ Western Hub. Eveland earned her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Science in Education from Western Illinois University, where she also received a special certificate in Instructional Design and Technology – Distance Learning. She additionally holds a Certificate of Achievement in Nonprofit Leadership.

Before stepping into the nonprofit arena, she taught art for thirteen years. As a rural artist herself, Eveland is deeply passionate about supporting artists who live and work in rural communities. Her belief that the arts and humanities should be accessible to everyone is the driving force behind her leadership at The Hub.

Faylita Hicks is a queer Afro-Latinx poet, Grammy-nominated interdisciplinary artist, and cultural theorist shaping conversations at the intersection of art, justice, spirit, and science.

A 2025 Haymarket Writing Freedom Fellow and 2024 Gwendolyn Brooks Living Legacy Honoree, they serve as Board Chair of Chicago’s Guild Literary Complex and are an alum of Illinois Humanities’ Envisioning Justice Fellowship. Hicks is the author of A Map of My Want (Haymarket, 2024), winner of the 2025 Midwest Book Award for Poetry, and HoodWitch (Acre, 2019), a finalist for the 2020 Lambda Literary Award. 

Their debut memoir-in-essays, A Body of Wild Light: The Fall and Rise of an American Poet (Haymarket, 2027), expands on their journey through the carceral system to propose broader frameworks for creativity, community, and liberation. 

Blending quantum philosophy, mysticism, and ritual, Hicks’ work amplifies the role of artists in shaping collective futures.

Lisa Yun Lee (BA, Bryn Mawr College, PhD, Duke University) is the Executive Director of the National Public Housing Museum, a cultural activist, an Associate Professor of Public Culture and Museum Studies in the UIC School of Art & Art History, and teaching faculty with the Prison and Neighborhood Arts/Education Project at Stateville Prison.

As the previous Director of the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, Lisa oversaw a renovation of one of the United States’ most important historic sites, installed a new permanent exhibition, and reinvigorated public programming. As the Director of the UIC School of Art & Art History from 2010-2017, she helped to found the Museum and Exhibition Studies Program that is committed to social justice.

Lisa served on both Mayor Brandon Johnson's and Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Arts & Culture Transition Teams, and on Mayor Lightfoot’s Commission for Monuments, Memorials, and Historical Reckoning.  She was recently reappointed by Governor Pritzker to the Board of the Illinois State Museum, and serves on the Boards of 3Arts, and the Field Foundation.

Gabrielle H. Lyon received her BA and MA in history from the University of Chicago and her PhD in Education from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is a nationally recognized nonprofit leader, educator, and public speaker with experience in launching and leading social impact organizations and initiatives focused on leveling the playing field of educational access and opportunity. She joined Illinois Humanities as the Executive Director in June 2019. 

Prior to that, Lyon served as Vice President of Education and Experience at the Chicago Architecture Center and as a senior researcher at the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is the founding executive director of Project Exploration, a nonprofit dedicated to changing the face of science for youth and girls of color, which was recognized locally and nationally, including with a Presidential Award for Excellence. 

Her honors include being named a 2023 Notable Leader in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion by Crain's Chicago Business, a National After School Champion by the After School Alliance, Chicagoan of the Year by Chicago Magazine, and a Leadership Fellow with the Chicago Community Trust. Lyon has served as a social impact coach at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and as an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management. Her current research and writing focus on the ways in which community-driven design and participatory humanities experiences bridge civic identities and strengthen social fabric. 

Lyon is the author of the graphic novels No Small Plans and Washington By and By and served as coeditor for A Simple Justice: The Challenge of Small Schools. 

Dalila Martinez is a high school student and a 2025 Gwendolyn Brooks Youth Poetry Awards winner. Dalia was unable to attend the event. Illinois Humanities' program manager for teaching and learning Margy LaFreniere read her winning poem, If They Take Her.

Chris Vallillo is a rural Illinois folksinger, songwriter, and folklorist who makes the people and places of "unmetropolitan" America come to life in song. 

A master of bottleneck slide and fingerstyle guitar, Chris weaves original, contemporary, and traditional songs and theatrical narratives into a compelling and entertaining portrait of the history and lifestyle of the Midwest. 

Dirty Linen magazine described the music as "vivid, original story songs" delivered with an "eye for detail and a sense of history,” while Folk Wax Magazine said “Vallillo’s guitar playing flows like warm honey and is a true aural delight.”. 

Chris has been a Road Scholar with Illinois Humanities since the late 1990s.

Tia K. Williams is a dedicated team member at Illinois Humanities and a proud working mom. She finds joy in reading, movies, music, and karaoke, and cherishes the moments spent with her family. 

Tia’s favorite activities include spending quality time with her boys, enjoying dinner outings with her husband, and connecting with her mom, siblings, and mother-in-law.