Serena Alaily is the dynamic Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Aspire, leading the change to create a boundlessly inclusive future for individuals with disabilities. Since stepping into the CEO role in 2022, Serena has driven the organization’s mission to reshape communities and expand opportunities in learning, employment, and accessible housing. Her strategic approach is results-driven, and she’s dedicated to continuously evolving Aspire’s services to meet the needs of today, while also planning for the future. Under her leadership, Aspire secured a federal grant for $9.2M to launch an employment training program, empowering young adults transitioning out of school.

Serena’s commitment to inclusivity is deeply personal—her youngest daughter has a disability, which fuels her passion for ensuring that all people have the opportunity to belong and thrive. She first joined Aspire in 2017 as CFO, where she led transformative initiatives, including a successful $7 million merger, relocating Aspire’s academy to a resource-rich facility, and significantly strengthening Aspire’s financial position.

Before joining Aspire, Serena worked at EY, a large international auditing and consulting firm. Before that, she was controller at Easter Seals, Inc., the headquarters of a national not-for-profit organization providing services for people with disabilities.

Outside of work, Serena enjoys reading, hiking with her golden retriever, cooking with her husband, and cheering on her three athletic daughters in competitive cheer and lacrosse!

Brad Weir is the immediate past Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Kelso-Burnett Co. Kelso-Burnett has been serving the city of Chicago for electrical and communication needs since its inception in 1908.

In 2005 Brad initiated the creation of Newport Industries, which became the Holding Company for the various companies owned by Kelso-Burnett Co. along with the parent K-B entity. This created a platform to enhance future growth in various markets.

Brad came to Kelso-Burnett in 1974 when K-B purchased Systems Electric, his family’s firm. Brad served his electrical apprenticeship in Lake County, Illinois, where he supervised several large-scale projects, including Abbott Laboratories, Baxter Pharmaceuticals, CF Industries and North Shore Sanitary District. While working out of the Lake County Office, Brad taught several journeyman classes in advanced technologies, including fire alarm, security and fiber optic cabling. Brad also served on the IBEW Executive Board for Local 150.

Brad is a graduate of Augustana College. He joined the NorthPointe Resources Board of Directors in 2018 before transitioning to Aspire’s Board of Directors in 2019. He currently lives in Wadsworth, Illinois, with his wife Jo Ann. They have two children, Jeff and John. Brad and Jo Ann have six grandchildren.

Jeff Miller serves as Chief Commercial Officer (COO) of Synchronoss Technologies. Jeff previously served as President for IDEAL Industries Technology Group, focusing on designing and delivering solutions for smart commercial buildings and spaces. IDEAL Industries is a century-old, professionally managed and family-owned business, based in the greater Chicagoland area. Jeff also serves on the Board of 1871, Chicago’s largest start-up incubator, and on the non-profit Boards of Aspire Chicago and Junior Achievement.

Before joining IDEAL Industries in 2017, Jeff completed a 16-year career with Motorola, most recently as Corporate Vice President and General Manager of Operations in North America for Motorola Mobility, LLC. Previously, Jeff was Vice President of Sales for Motorola’s business with AT&T, T-Mobile, and 23 global wireless customers across North America, Latin America, EMEA and the Asia Pacific.

Jeff also spent five years with Somera Communications as the Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing, and he worked for AT&T for eleven years, holding various leadership positions in Sales Management, Marketing and Product Management.

Jeff graduated with a B.S. degree from Miami University and later earned his M.B.A. from The Ohio State University. He and his wife Susan have four children and reside in Chicago’s Lake View neighborhood.

Jeff has spent his career leading and overseeing financial operations in family office, hospitality, real estate, and insurance industries. In his current role as Senior Vice President, Senior Asset Manager – Family Business Group at Northern Trust Corporation, Jeff serves as a director and officer in several family businesses which Northern Trust holds in a fiduciary capacity.

Jeff graduated with a Bachelor of Science, Mathematics degree from Purdue University and later earned his Master of Accounting Science, Accounting from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Kari is currently a Partner at EY in the Central Region Health Assurance practice, with more than 20 years of experience in providing assurance services to public, private and nonprofit organizations as well as other health care organizations. She serves as the EY Executive Sponsor for the Entrepreneur of the Year (EOY) and Entrepreneurial Winning Women programs celebrating and honoring the achievements of unstoppable entrepreneurs.

After attending Miami University and earning a Bachelor of Science degree, Kari became a Registered Certified Public Accountant in the state of Illinois. In addition to serving on the Finance Committee of Aspire’s Board of Directors, she is also a member of the Illinois CPA Society, American Institute of Public Accountants and the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA), including the First Illinois HFMA Women in Leadership Committee.

Today, Kari, her husband, John, and their four children reside in the western suburbs of Chicago.

Kelly Taira is the Channel Strategy and Development Executive responsible for physical network planning and design, new build and renovations for Bank of America’s 4,000 financial centers nationwide. Kelly is also responsible for managing and delivering new capabilities to 16,000 of the bank’s ATMs throughout the U.S. He also leads the Consumer Bank’s operating model strategy, staffing and financial center processes and procedures.

Kelly joined Bank of America’s Consumer line of business in May 2012. He led a consultative team with a mission to responsibly grow Merrill Edge Financial Solutions Advisors and integrate their advisory practices into the Financial Center channel. Kelly continued to expand his responsible growth scope through three primary business dimensions: planning and initiatives, compensation and reporting, and site planning and staff optimization.

Previously, Kelly was with the Global Wealth & Investment Management team where he managed credit strategy, structured lending products and initiatives for their $100Bn portfolio. Kelly joined the company through Merrill Lynch where he managed credit pricing and profitability for Merrill’s business banking finance division.

Prior to Bank of America, Kelly was a product management executive at J.P. Morgan Chase in their treasury services division and at ABN AMRO as a CFO for their cash management and business support divisions. Kelly started his career in business consulting and accounting at Accenture and KPMG.

Kelly is an active board member of Aspire and past board chairman at Easter Seals and lives in Chicago with his wife and 3 children.

Rick Kerman is the Chairman of Steiner Electric Company, a four-generation family-owned business headquartered in Chicago, founded in 1916 by Rick’s grandfather, and has become a diversified distributorship focused on Electrical, Lighting & Control, Automation, Metalworking and Power Solutions. Alongside his father Harold, the company grew into one of the largest independent electrical distributors in the country, with over $200M in annual sales and more than 300 employees.   

Rick discovered his passion for the family business at an early age. He graduated from Lincoln Junior College and continued at the University of Arizona where he majored in Marketing and Business.  Immediately after college Rick joined the company, and in 1979 opened their first branch in Rockford, Illinois. 

Rick was CEO, COO, President until 2020 when he brought on a non-family CEO to run the day to day. While remaining active within the industry Rick is focused on strategic growth and preparing the family business for future generations.  

Rick has served on many manufacturers’ advisory councils and organizations including Affiliated Distributors Network Chairman, and on the Board of Directors for Supply Force, The Electric Association, Aspire, and Hard Hats.  

In 1991, Rick co-founded the Greater Chicago Area Electrical Industry Friends of Comic Relief that held local events to benefit healthcare for the homeless. In 2012, he co-founded the Chicago Electrical Industry (CEI) Community Outreach, raising awareness and donations for the American Cancer Society Walk & Roll.  Rick was an active Boy Scout leader.  

Rick and his wife Carol manage The Steiner Kerman Education Foundation, established by his father Harold. They reside in Northbrook, Illinois.  They have three grown sons and currently two grandchildren. They enjoy family, traveling, hiking, and cycling. 

Andy Kettlewell serves as Vice President of Inventory, Advanced Analytics, and Master Data for Walgreens, where he leads the end-to-end supply chain planning, coordination, and execution for Walgreens.

During his tenure at Walgreens, Andy has led working capital improvement by more than $1 billion, while improving store-in-stock conditions by 60% and reducing operational costs thru the creation, adoption, and application of advanced analytics, strategic partnerships, and talent development. Andy has led large-scale transformational integration, leading the supply chain integration of numerous acquisitions (Duane Reade, USA Drug, Happy Harry’s) in the retail and e-commerce space, including the integration of Beauty.com, skinstore.com, and drugstore.com into the Walgreens network.

Andy is a proud husband, father of two amazing kids, backyard beekeeper, board game aficionado, cinnamon roll baker, and aspirational triathlete and mountain climber who loves to explore the world with his family.

Angela is an operations-led Human Resources executive with 20+ years of experience assisting organizations with driving business results through their talent. She currently serves as the Chief Human Resources Officer for Heartland Veterinary Services based out of Chicago, IL.

Throughout her career, Angela has led organization development efforts for Anixter International, Volkswagen of America, Roche Diagnostics, Walgreens Boots Alliance, and most recently, Aspen Dental. Her experience spans across various industries including technology, healthcare, automotive, and retail.

At Heartland, Angela is improving business results through enhancing leadership effectiveness and implementing talent processes that help team members: feel well cared for, bring their whole selves to work, perform at their best, and remain highly engaged.

Angela earned an MBA from LaSalle University in Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Ball State University in Indiana.

Bob Johnson is an attorney and worked for the federal government for 27 years as an Administrative Judge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Concurrently, he worked as a medical technologist for 54 years with Advocate Health Care. Bob was a member of NorthPointe Resources’ Board of Directors for nine years prior to joining Aspire’s Board of Directors in 2019. His wife, Anne, is an R.N. and has worked for organizations for people with disabilities.

Bob has had an interest in people with developmental disabilities and mental illness since his son, Chris, was born with cerebral palsy. Chris currently enjoys living in one of Aspire’s Lake County Community Homes. Bob and his late wife, Anne, lived in Arlington Heights for 50 years, then relocated to Whitewater, Wisconsin where Bob resides.

Erin Nahumyk is the Managing Director & Chief Accounting Officer of Harrison Street and is a member of the firm’s Management Committee. She is the department leader overseeing all reporting, accounting, tax and treasury functions of the firm’s real estate funds. She is also responsible for the optimization and productivity of the group’s activities, including development of finance strategy. Her team manages quarterly accounting and reporting, annual year-end audits and tax filings. Prior to joining Harrison Street, Nahumyk held the position of EVP, Chief Accounting Officer of Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL Americas), where she led the corporate finance and accounting departments as well as oversaw finance operations. Nahumyk started her career at Ernst & Young (Chicago) in the real estate assurance practice. She is a Certified Public Accountant in the State of Illinois. Nahumyk received her B.A. in Accountancy from Michigan State University.

As one of our newest members of the Aspire Board of Directors, Grace is excited to be an advocate for adults with disabilities. She participates in our Community Employment Program, and you can learn more about Grace’s Story in this Aspire video.

Tell us about your job, title, and a few sentences about what you do.

I am a Café Attendant.  I make sure my assigned kitchens are stocked. I have a long checklist I work from.

What are your goals?

To someday open a dog bakery.

What do you think about Aspire and being on the Board of Directors?

I love Aspire!

What is your personal mission statement?

To make someone’s day just a little brighter than before we met.

What is your idea of the perfect day?

A day without drama or something breaking.

What are you listening to now or what is your favorite thing to listen to?

I’m a huge fan of commentary YouTubers, but I am also a fan of the band Citizen Soldier.

Joe Virgilio is the owner of Travel Center, Inc., a Mount Prospect, IL, full-service travel agency business. Joe is also retired from the Highland Park Fire Department, where he served 30 years as a paramedic and firefighter.

Joe joined NorthPointe Resource’s Board of Directors in 2009 before transitioning to Aspire’s Board of Directors in 2019. He is a strong advocate for people with disabilities, centered around his love for his brother-in-law, who has a disability.

Joe holds a BA from Augustana University. He lives in Mount Prospect, IL, and is the proud father of three sons, Joe, Mike and Matt.

John McGuire is the Founder and Managing Member of Intertide Partners, a platform that partners with families and institutions to make exceptional investments.

Before starting Intertide Partners in 2021, John spent 15 years as the Chief Investment Officer of Pritzker Family Foundations L.L.C., an investment company that serves the families of Penny, Tom, and Gigi Pritzker and their charitable foundations. Prior to this role, John served for 3 years as a senior investment professional at Granite Associates, a New York-based family investment office. Before Granite Associates, John spent three years at Accenture, where he focused on management consulting projects in the finance industry.

John earned a BA in History from Yale University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Kathleen Dillon Narko is a Clinical Professor of Law at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. Her focus teaching is legal analysis through the vehicle of writing. Kathleen presents frequently at national academic conferences with the Legal Writing Institute and Association of Legal Writing Directors. She has written and spoken on a variety of topics related to communication and legal analysis.

Kathleen is a nationally recognized expert in legal writing. She has been invited to train judges, government legal departments, in-house corporate attorneys, and private practice attorneys to improve their writing. The American Bar Association selected Kathleen as one of five experts nationwide to create a webinar for the Legal Writing Project with the Law Library of Congress. In addition, she has been the legal writing columnist for the Chicago Bar Association’s CBA Record since 2005.

Prior to joining Northwestern Law, Kathleen practiced with a large law firm in Chicago, where she focused on commercial litigation and environmental, safety, and health law.

Kathleen is also active in the disability community. She has spoken on including disability within diversity and how the legal profession can take steps to be more equitable for and inclusive of disabled attorneys. At Northwestern Law she is a member of the Disability Working Group. She is a Member of Disability Lead and on the Advisory Committee for Disability:IN Chicagoland.

Kathleen received her B.A. from Yale University and J.D. from Cornell University.

Kristen Vitale is the Director of Business Consulting at Financial Resources Group Investment Services, LLC (FRG) where she provides customized services to financial institutions and advisors.

Prior to joining Financial Resources Group in 2021, Kristen spent 18 years at First Midwest Bank as Senior Vice President and Investment Program Manager where she was responsible for the bank’s retail investment and insurance business. In addition to developing and executing growth strategies and leading a high producing sales team, Kristen also served on the board of the First Midwest Charitable Foundation and was a founding member of the First Midwest Bank Women’s Business Resource Group.

Kristen attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration.

Kristen and her husband reside in River Forest, Illinois with their two children.

Lakshmi is a Managing Partner & Head of Business Services and Technology for Retail Americas division of TCS, a Tata Group of Companies. In her current role, she partners with senior business leaders and global CIOs of Fortune 50 companies, to set the vision and road map for business and technology transformations. Prior to Tata, she served as the CIO of Enterprise Applications, Services and IT Customer Experience for Caterpillar and delivered an integrated IT strategy bringing 15 different IT teams together and creating a path to enable agile & economical IT implementations, cloud /digital enablement, reduce technical debt, avoid duplicative IT investment, and a robust IT talent strategy in line with the industry trends. From 2015 to 2018, she was with Hyatt Hotels Corporation as a Global Director of Information Technology and built innovative IT Business Solutions. In the retail market, Lakshmi served Walgreens for over 12 years as Senior Director of Information Technology delivering several strategic technology applications, programs that directly supported the business strategy, and enabled realization of multi- million dollars of ROI.

In 2019, she was awarded Stevie Awards for Women in Business for Leader in transforming customer engagement for the contributions over several organizations.

She has a MBA from Annamalai University, India and also completed her Executive Leadership Program through Duke University.

Volunteer causes that interest her most are: creating an inclusive corporate environment for people with disabilities; education, training, and employment for the underprivileged; and women’s empowerment.

She traded the sunny coastal climate of Chennai, India to live in Chicago for the past 20+ years!

LaShon Gurrola, MSN,APRN-FNP-BC, is a Nurse Care Manager with Ambulatory Care Management Department at Rush University Medical Center. She has been a registered Nurse for over 25 years, and an inpatient surgical nurse with Edwards –Elmhurst Hospital for 23 years.

She attended College of DuPage & Purdue University for Undergraduate. She holds a Master’s degree from Chamberlain University as a Family Nurse Practitioner.

LaShon has developed a strong clinical background, including experience with inpatient surgical nursing on Ortho/Neuro /Spine unit, Home Health Care Nursing, & Transitional Care Nursing. She started and facilitates Lupus support groups at Rush University and Edwards-Elmhurst Hospital, served on the Associate Board of Lupus Society of Illinois from 2019-2022, and is a 2020 Fellow of Disability Lead.

She is a founding member of Gamma Pi Rho Lupus Sorority, Inc., which supports the Lupus community, and LaShon has implemented education and support programs and developed collaborative relationships to benefit this organization.

Her passion for community is focused on underserved populations, with interests ranging from health disparities in the African American communities, disability communities, and chronic conditions. LaShon educates and empowers communities on ways to promote health literacy, health management, self-advocacy, and teaches strategies to work collaboratively with health care providers. Mentoring other African American nurses is something that she does to help strengthen the success and retention of nurses with the end goal to have more health educators in the black and brown communities to help promote health, wellness and literacy. LaShon is a firm believer that we must first know better to do better.

Suzanne is a Human Resources executive widely regarded for her expertise in leadership development, employee engagement,  and various aspects of HR management. With a proven track record of driving organizational success through strategic HR initiatives, she brings a wealth of experience to her role as Chief People Officer at Hinshaw & Culbertson. Her visionary approach to talent management and ability to foster a culture of growth and inclusivity has made her a transformative force in the field of HR.

She is also a certified coach through the International Coaching Federation, further enhancing her ability to provide personalized and impactful coaching and mentorship to individuals and teams. Her coaching expertise complements her HR leadership, creating a holistic approach to talent development and organizational growth.

Suzanne is deeply committed to community engagement. In addition to serving on Aspire’s board of directors, she is involved at her son’s therapeutic day school, demonstrating a solid commitment to enhancing educational experiences and support for children with disabilities.

Stacey is Chief Labor Counsel and Vice-President of Labor and Employee Relations for Walgreens. Within this role, she oversees the relationship and collective bargaining with all of the unions representing Walgreen’s team members. Stacey also heads the Labor Counsel for Walgreens, which consists of the executive leaders for each functional area of the organization, ensuring cross-functional collaboration in the execution of the labor strategy. Additionally, in Stacey’s role as Vice-President of Employee Relations, she oversees a large team of employee relations experts in their duties of providing retail, supply chain, and office team member support. In this capacity, Stacey is charged with ensuring a positive workplace and exceptional engagement for over 250,000 Walgreens team members.

Prior to joining Walgreens, Stacey served as Vice-President, Human Resources, Labor & Government Relations for Albertson’s-Safeway. In the divisions of the company in which she served (Jewel-Osco and Safeway Eastern), Stacey not only devised and executed on the labor strategy, but also on talent management, succession planning, compensation and legislative activity. Before joining Albertson’s-Safeway, Stacey was employed as General Counsel for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in Chicago, Illinois. Within this role, Stacey negotiated multiple collective bargaining agreements, arbitrated and litigated a variety of issues, and provided legal guidance to the administration. In the earlier years of Stacey’s career, she was employed as a litigation attorney in Dayton, Ohio.

Stacey received her J.D. from the University of Dayton, School of Law, and her B.S. at Ball State University.

Serena Alaily is the dynamic Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Aspire, leading the change to create a boundlessly inclusive future for individuals with disabilities. Since stepping into the CEO role in 2022, Serena has driven the organization’s mission to reshape communities and expand opportunities in learning, employment, and accessible housing. Her strategic approach is results-driven, and she’s dedicated to continuously evolving Aspire’s services to meet the needs of today, while also planning for the future. Under her leadership, Aspire secured a federal grant for $9.2M to launch an employment training program, empowering young adults transitioning out of school.

Serena’s commitment to inclusivity is deeply personal—her youngest daughter has a disability, which fuels her passion for ensuring that all people have the opportunity to belong and thrive. She first joined Aspire in 2017 as CFO, where she led transformative initiatives, including a successful $7 million merger, relocating Aspire’s academy to a resource-rich facility, and significantly strengthening Aspire’s financial position.

Before joining Aspire, Serena worked at EY, a large international auditing and consulting firm. Before that, she was controller at Easter Seals, Inc., the headquarters of a national not-for-profit organization providing services for people with disabilities.

Outside of work, Serena enjoys reading, hiking with her golden retriever, cooking with her husband, and cheering on her three athletic daughters in competitive cheer and lacrosse!

As the SVP of Philanthropy, Maggie provides strategic leadership and drives growth at Aspire to achieve greater impact through philanthropy, partnerships, communications and branding. She’s honored and humbled to work alongside Aspire’s supporters, who she calls change-makers. And energized by spreading Aspire’s vision of boundless inclusivity.

Maggie is an Aspire boomerang. Maggie spent her early career at Aspire, helping Jim launch Aspire CoffeeWorks and writing Aspire’s vision. In between, she dove into deep waters, leading public relations at Shedd Aquarium, working with The New York Times, The Today Show and Time magazine. She also drove headlines for purpose-driven companies and entrepreneurs, building a start-up marketing agency.

Now, she’s come full circle. She’s here at Aspire, helping create a movement.

What is your personal mission statement? Every day is a great day. Recognize the adventure!

What’s your idea of the perfect day? It starts in the butterfly haven at Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, being mistaken for a volunteer because I know a little too much about the butterflies and love chatting with people. Then I spend hours reading a novel on a picnic blanket in front of Lincoln Park Conservatory before heading to Chinatown for hot pot.

What are you listening to? After I finish that day’s episode of Start Here, of course, to get pumped up in the morning, I listen to Aspire’s podcast Amplify Inclusion. It gives me a daily dose of inspiration that kick-starts my day. That’s only when I’m not listening to Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” on repeat.

As Chief Operating Officer, Sharon leads Aspire's Operations, People, and IT Teams with the goal of creating exceptional experiences for everyone Aspire supports and employs. Sharon joined Aspire in 2020 as Chief People Officer, where she was responsible for managing Aspire's People Team including talent management, organization development, compensation/benefits, Human Resource Operations, and overseeing Informational Technology. In May 2023, Sharon assumed additional responsibilities for Operations.

Before joining Aspire, Sharon was an HR Executive at NorthShore University HealthSystem. Prior to that, she held HR leadership roles in financial services, hospitality and consulting.

Sharon holds a BS from the University of Illinois and an MS from Northwestern University.

What are some strategic goals specific to your role? Adopting technology and process improvements to enable efficiencies and enhance capabilities to support Aspire’s growth strategy

What’s your favorite book or movie? Marvel movies and Rom-coms

What’s currently on your playlist? Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars, Panic at the Disco, Little Big Town, Elton John