Ed Suarez

She has been exposed to all areas of a nonprofit organization. Rubalcava began her career as a community organizer in Uptown, Rogers Park, and West Ridge. She then joined the Association for Child Development as the director of nutrition services. After that, she spent six years working at the Academy for Urban School Leadership and Holy Trinity High School. Rubalcava earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana. In addition to her work at Mikva Challenge, Rubalcava serves on the associate board of Erie Family Health Centers and sits on the steering committee for the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research.

Age: 39

Title: Vice President

Organization: Wallin/Gomez Architects Ltd

Joanna Ruiz is vice president of Wallin/Gomez Architects, which she joined in 2007.

She manages teams throughout an entire construction project, with clients during design, followed by permit and construction drawings with internal teams and engineers, and finally with contractors in the construction phase. She has successfully completed over $180 million of construction thus far. She is an accredited professional in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and consults on all aspects