Meet the Panelists

Officer LaTonya Ruffin’s credentials is what simply sets her apart. She has practical, on-the-job law enforcement experience that spans nearly 20 years. That experience is strengthened by her law enforcement and criminal justice degrees from highly accredited institutions. During her law enforcement tenure, she has served as Cook County Sheriff Deputy at the Cook County Jail, provided and protected as a police officer in three different suburban communities and worked in the Illinois State Police crime lab. She knows her way around a firearm, when needed, being certified on many levels, including homeland security. And, that’s just the beginning. Officer Ruffin has witnessed the steady, scary deterioration of her beloved Cook County. She has observed, watched and perceived it, from within, as a long-time member of law enforcement. It disturbs her, greatly, and keeps her up at night. Crime is out of control, gun violence is spiking like never before, murders are skyrocketing and carjackings are on the rise. THIS is the reason Officer LaTonya Ruffin has a desire to become Cook County Sheriff. She is a talented, experienced, smart and tough leader that has a clear-eyed vision for Cook County that will positively impact and touch every resident. She supports a progressive department that will push for accountability and greater transparency. Her 21st century approach will provide a model for other departments that could benefit from more inclusive measures to defeat stereotypes, abandon profiling and ensure all communities find equal protection under the law. The intense burden of the pandemic was not equally shouldered. Neither was the burden of gun violence. “We’ve got to get serious about focusing resources WHERE they need to go, WHERE they belong and can do the most good,” Officer Ruffin says with a sigh. Bail reform and public safety can co-exist, she says, IF the people released from jail have access to the resources they need to stay out of trouble, thus driving the recidivism rate down, reducing first time incarcerations AND reducing crime and gun violence. Officer Ruffin will call on her intuitive, executive acumen to create a better working environment for sheriff personnel that will draw the best out of them. She will ensure officers will receive the best training available that will, in turn, allow them to give their best to the inmate population they serve. In a matter-of-fact manner, Officer Ruffin simply states, “poorly-trained officers must not be allowed to wear a badge.” She is committed to restoring law & order in a way that is exceptionally effective, quantifiable, quantitative and, perhaps most importantly, makes residents feel safe and secure. Knowing the value of community engagement, Officer Ruffin has innovative plans to, first, partner with municipal police departments to increase community policing in high crime areas to mitigate violent crime, before it occurs. She will collaborate with anti-violence activists, community leaders and mental health experts to establish a county-wide coalition that will meet the needs of the residents, while addressing and deterring criminal activity. Officer Ruffin has a master plan to reset the Sheriff's electronic monitoring program to its original purpose to manage low level, non-violent offenders as they are awaiting trial. She will prioritize the immediate termination of its current use in dealing with felony offenders that has proven futile and deadly. “There have been at least a half dozen people who have been charged with shooting or killing — or trying to shoot or kill — someone this year, while awaiting trial for a felony on electronic monitoring. One of them is a 16-year-old boy. The system was never meant to be used in that way and that fact has been proven with deadly consequences,” says Officer Ruffin. Recently, there has been an outbreak of violent offenders getting younger and younger. Pandemic-induced anxiety and economic collapse are two factors most commonly cited for the spike in younger offenders. It weighs heavily on Officer Ruffin’s heart. “Our youth [sigh]... I hear many write them off as being “crazy” or “out of control” when many of our youth need more. Many young men are in fear of their lives. They need more than jobs and second chance programs. They need mental health services. They have no real place to go or real support systems, in that regard,” says Officer Ruffin. “The so-called ‘Scared Straight’’ programs were effective. I would like to see them re-established with other behavioral modification programs that will instill self-respect, respect for others, respect for community and respect for the world they live in. Mental health support, jobs, training and other support may cost a lot. But the cost of NOT fixing these things will cost us even more in dollars, lives and our future.”

PhD candidate at DePaul University. Board member, Building Peaceful Bridges & coordinator Bridge to Belongings Program.

Dr. Gina Paige Co-Founder & President, African Ancestry, Inc. Industry Pioneer, Speaker, Entrepreneur, COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: NIGERIA TRIBES: HAUSA AND FULANI PIONEER: In 2003, Dr. Gina Paige co-founded African Ancestry, Inc. (AfricanAncestry.com) and in doing so, pioneered a new way of tracing African lineages using genetics, and a new marketplace for people of African descent looking to more accurately and reliably trace their roots. Paige travels the world helping people demystify their roots and inform on identities so that they may better understand who they are by knowing where they’re from. RESPECTED LUMINARY: Paige has worked with and revealed the roots of the worlds’ leading icons and entities including Oprah Winfrey, John Legend, Chadwick Boseman, Spike Lee, Condoleezza Rice and The King Family. Paige has served as speaker, presenter and/or partner to McDonalds, Capital One, The Walt Disney Company, Booz Allen Hamilton, Wells Fargo, The Wall Street Health Forum, New York Times Travel Show, United Healthcare and dozens of community organizations and faith-based entities. She’s often a go-to resource for African Diaspora communities including the Embassies of Cameroon, Nigeria and Ghana; The Year of Return 2019 event From Jamestown to Jamestown with the NAACP; Back2Africa Festival in Cape Coast and various African tourism authorities and leaders. MEDIA RESOURCE: Paige has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including The Breakfast Club, Hot 97-FM, Time Magazine, USA Today, 60 Minutes, NewsOne Now with Roland Martin, HuffPost Live with Marc Lamont Hill, The Joe Madison Show, Sister Circle Live, Essence Magazine, The New York Times, The Tom Joyner Morning Show, FOX Business News, Reuters, New York Times, Canal Media Company, Black Enterprise, Ebony, NPR, Metro Source Urban Radio, American Urban Radio Networks, The Grio.com and TheRoot.com among many others. Her work is featured in PBS’ Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and African American Lives 1 & 2, The Africa Channel, NBC’s Who Do You Think You Are? CNN’s Black in America series and SiriusXM where she created and served as co-host on African Ancestry Radio. ENTREPRENEURIAL DNA: From a lineage of entrepreneurs, Paige launched her first business at age 8, with a magazine purposed to raise money for family trips. She went on to start “Pik-A-Pak” Care Packages as a Stanford University graduate, helping families stay connected with their children while away at school. Prior to forming AfricanAncestry.com, Paige was the founder and president of GPG Strategic Marketing Resources. EDUCATION: Paige resides in Washington, D.C. and holds a degree in Economics from Stanford University and an MBA from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. Paige was honored with an Honorary Doctor of Philosophy from Global Oved Dei Seminary University. CONTACT: Nichole Taylor Taylor Communications Group taylor@taylorcommunicationsgroup.com ntaylor@africanancestry.com

Dr. Aida Abraha came to the USA from Ethiopia in 1980 to pursue higher education. She received her BS from Chicago State University in chemistry in 1985 and her PHD in biochemistry from Loyola University of Chicago in 1992. Dr. Abraha did her post-doctoral fellowships at John's Hopkins and Northwestern Universities. She joined Chicago State University in 2002 and went through the ranks from an associate professor to tenured full professor. Dr. Abraha taught general chemistry, biochemistry, and physical chemistry. She did research in Alzheimer's disease and trained over 25 students in her laboratory. She also served as an Associate Dean in the College of Arts & Sciences at Chicago State University for five years. She published over 14 scientific papers, wrote a book chapter and was awarded over $1.6 million in grants from the National Institute of Health, the National Science Foundation, and other agencies. Dr. Abraha has a nonprofit organization, RS Africa Special NFP to provide education to Special Needs Children in Ethiopia; she is also a Board Member of the Eritrean Development Foundation. Helping others is second nature to her for she started volunteering at the Missionaries of Charity, in Addis Ababa Ethiopia when she was 12 years old. Dr. Abraha is a strong believer in one Ethiopia and Pan-Africanism; she took early retirement in July 2021 so she can go back to serve Ethiopia and Africa.

Martin Pieters is a Mathematics and Physical Science Professor at the City Colleges of Chicago- Kennedy King College, and an education specialist with both significant experiences in industry and education. He is also the founder of the DJMP Institute whose mIssion is to demystify technology for historically marginalized communities by creating technology pathways and pipelines for elementary and high school students. Additionally he’s the National Director of STEM programming for Rainbow PUSH/Excel, one of the leading civil rights national organization founded by the Rev Jesse L. Jackson Sr., who was appointed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He has an entrepreneurial leaning and has successfully created several companies and managed several hundreds of million dollar budgets. His lengthy, progressively successful career in higher education and industry is rich with creative problem solving through innovative corporate and community partnerships, STEM program championing entrepreneurship training, and inter-institutional ventures. He is passionate about moving beyond familiar paradigms to empower adults to enhance their power to continuously learn, an essential component of individual success and company competitiveness. Leveraging on his inter-institutional affiliation with both the Chicago City Colleges and the University of Chicago, Mr. Pieters is currently pursuing a research fellowship in the MESEC Department at Northwestern University to develop a materials discovery acceleration platform which combines efficient material synthesis with AI-based techniques. In particular, the goal is to implement state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence and develop machine learning and end-to-end deep learning techniques capable of microstructure and physical automated image-based data analytics techniques to accelerate the optimal design of polymer composites from microstructure images, with the methods developed being generalizable to many advanced material applications. Pieters previously was a research fellow at the BME Department at IIT and Gifu University, Japan as a senior MRTD Lab personnel, where his research focuses on both technical grant-supported BME research, and on engineering education/pedagogy incorporating the state-of-the-art Artifical intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) in clinical data processing for medical devices and imaging systems, where sampling error sources mask the true sensor data employed free-living conditions. The team has demonstrated this in state-of-the-art Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scheme using Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) and considering clinical decision making assisted by AI-based algorithms., higher training data fidelity is essential for clinical translation, but real-world clinical data is oftentimes not clean

Founder of the you break it you fix it foundation. Which is a community organization designed around ex-cons who are taking the initiative to fix the community in which we actively help to break.

Anna Valencia is a proven leader who understands the challenges many Illinois families face. She grew up downstate in Granite City in a proud working-class, union family. Anna’s dad was a union painter and her mom worked for a non-profit helping underprivileged high school students after school. Growing up, Anna’s parents instilled in her the importance of a good education. With their support and the encouragement of one of her public school teachers, Anna became the first person in her family to graduate from college. She attended University of Illinois on a scholarship and graduated with a degree in International Studies in 2007. After college, Anna was determined to make a positive impact on the world around her. With her personal belief that government has the ability to have a profound and meaningful impact on people’s lives, Anna decided to go to work helping to elect Democratic officials who she knew would fight for working families like her own. During her time on campaigns, Anna fought tirelessly to elect Senator Dick Durbin, Senator Gary Peters, and Congressman Mike Quigley. In 2016, Anna moved from campaigns to government, taking on the role of Director of Legislative Counsel and Government Affairs in the Chicago Mayor’s Office. She was only the second woman and the first Latina to serve in that position. After the election of Donald Trump in 2016, everything changed for Anna. As a working-class woman of color, Anna acutely understood there was so much at stake for working families, for communities of color, for women, and for our Democracy. When the City Clerk of Chicago position became open, Anna decided it was time to step out from behind the scenes and join the fight on the front lines. Anna has served as City Clerk of Chicago since 2017. During her time as Clerk, she has worked passionately to make the office more accessible to the public and to implement policies to help improve the lives of families throughout Chicago. She established the City Key Program, making free optional government issued ID cards available to all Chicagoans and improving access to city benefits like discount prescription drug programs. Anna also executed historic reforms to fines and fees, helping pull many Chicagoans out of debt. She also spearheaded the development of the first Mobile City Hall, which brings city services directly to communities across Chicago. Anna will bring this same energy and drive to the office of Secretary of State. She will fight to improve services by increasing transparency, modernizing state government, and focusing on more flexible services. Anna will be a voice for people who often don’t see themselves in state leaders like downstaters, working families, moms, and people of color. Anna and her husband Reyahd Kazmi live in the Tri-Taylor neighborhood in Chicago with their daughter Reyana.

Pastor Chris Christian Artist, wellness advisor, pastor. Started his spiritual ministry as program director of an after school program in West Englewood in Chicago in 2003 along with being one of the founding members of the Christian hip hop group called Outworld. In 2010 Chris accepted his calling to the Ministry and was ordained as a minister and Youth Pastor of Canaan Community Church. Chris Ferrill was installed as Senior Pastor at Canaan Community Church in June of 2021.

Whether as a private citizen or public official, David Moore believes no job is too small or too large for him to tackle to improve the lives of neighbors and constituents—both locally and statewide. The Englewood resident possesses a rare combination of corporate experience, political savvy and passion for progressive change. Through Moore’s work as a community organizer, political campaign manager and public policy liaison, he has connected with people and issues in every corner of the state. Alderman Moore spent his childhood in the Robert Taylor Homes, before moving to the Englewood and Auburn-Gresham communities. Upon completing Simeon Vocational High School, he graduated from Western Illinois University with a dual major in accounting and operations management. He earned an MA with emphasis in government studies at Loyola University-Chicago. Moore established a successful accounting career in the private sector at several Fortune 500 companies, as well as with Chicago’s Department of Aviation, Chicago Housing Authority and he served as an assistant to the commissioner of the Cook County Board of Review, coordinating the Faith-based and Community Initiatives. His work in the public sector exposed him to nearly every aspect of government management, including hands-on experience with cost-benefit analysis, budgeting, strategic planning, directing inter-agency teams, and projecting the impact of initiatives related to such issues as urban renewal, affordable housing, land use, public works, and transportation. He oversaw projects for redeveloping the South Loop, creating job-training sites and identifying employment opportunities for low-income residents. Moore also worked on the redevelopment of Hilliard Homes and construction of the National Teachers Academy. The lifelong South Side resident traces his “call” to public service back to his days as an 11-year-old walking the 17th Ward with his uncle, an assistant precinct captain. Years later, Moore became precinct captain of the ward’s Democratic Organization. He worked on behalf of local neighborhoods in several capacities, most notably successful voter registration drives, assisting officials to shut down drug houses and common-sense gun legislation. He also played key roles in city, state, and national elections. As a public servant, Moore considers himself on the “front line” and his duty is to provide access, customer service, transparency, accountability, integrity, and advocacy. His grassroots and corporate backgrounds give him the skills to be effective. Moore is the proud father of Alexandria Moore; son of Elizabeth Lee, who is known for generously giving her time to the community; and spiritual son of Rev. Dr. Clay Evans. The community recognizes David as a man of integrity, as well as for his volunteer work particularly with seniors, students and those involved with drug abuse. He is a member of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and founder of Moore For Youth, a nonprofit empowering youth and providing them access to government; and The Southside Memorial Day Parade, remembering and honoring veterans throughout the city and suburbs. Moore serves as a deacon of his long-time home of worship, Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church where Rev. Dr. Clay Evans was the founder and Reverend Reginald Sharpe is pastor.

Life-long Chicago south sider Jenetia Marshall, is a candidate for Cook County Circuit Judge, 5th Judicial Subcircuit. Marshall has been practicing law for more than 18years. She began her legal career with the Office of the Cook County Public Guardian in 2002 and transitioned to the Department of Children & Family Services in 2019 as Supervisor Regional Counsel, an effort to continue in her mission of public service. In this role, Marshall has continued to advocate for children and reunite families. Through her work, she was able to touch the families and communities that she seeks to continue to serve as a member of the judiciary. Marshall currently works as Statewide Compliance Administrator for The Department of Children & Family Services. Marshall worked as a program manager with Northeastern Illinois University after graduating from Spelman College in 1995. In that role, Marshall (Chicago Public School alum) was instrumental in implementing innovative education programs in inner city neighborhoods. Marshall also worked as a bilingual medical case-manager on Chicago’s west side. In this role, she advocated for immigrant families in need of medical care and education for their children. She also worked as a direct service case-manager, working closely with parents that were facing issues related to addiction, domestic violence, mental health and child hood trauma. She also worked with children who had been a product of these house-holds, so in turn, were plagued with abuse, neglect or dependency. Marshall came to recognize the disproportionate number of people of color in the court system. Further, she saw that children were not being represented by people that looked like them or could relate to their struggle. While she was able to advocate for her clients as case-manager, she felt that she could serve them even more as a legal advocate, so she went to John Marshall Law School. Upon completion, she returned to juvenile court to continue her advocacy as attorney and guardian at litem, bringing with her the knowledge and expertise she had gained while working in the trenches. Marshall has devoted her entire career to public service. In so doing, she has come to know and value people from all walks of life, which she reveres as a humbling opportunity to have served her community and walk in God’s purpose. Marshall believes that the ultimate act of public service is to become a member of the judiciary. Marshall has been found to be Qualified and/or Recommended by every Bar Association she has appeared before.