Linda Novick O'Keefe

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96% Common Threads' students exhibited a 96% improvement in healthy food choices

Common Threads staffers come from varying backgrounds, but share a concern for children, a commitment to positive social change, and a love of good food and the communities food can create and sustain.

Kristen Baxter
Mimi Chacin
Bill Finn
Stephanie Folkens
Eleanor Leichenko
Linda Novick O'Keefe
Jill Reid
Susan Reilly
Justin Smith
Courtenay Strickland
Courtney Turner
Mary Ann Weprin
April Wiencek
Dawn Woollen
Hannah Whitehead
Linda Novick O'Keefe

Linda Novick O'Keefe
Executive Director
ph 312.329.2501
fx 312.277.9517
Linda@commonthreads.org


Linda Novick O’Keefe is the Executive Director of Common Threads.  Her experience, desire to develop innovative solutions to social problems combined with her passion for food led her to start Common Threads with chef Art Smith and artist Jesus Salgueiro in May 2003. Their vision was for a non-profit organization committed to educating Chicago's youth about cultural diversity, the culinary arts and the importance of nutrition.

Common Threads reverses the trend of generation of non-cookers who have been raised on over-processed food. Linda believes that food access is not only a key indicator of larger social justice issues, but also a common concern with the potential to both strengthen individuals and fortify entire communities; Common Threads is teaching children where poverty, race and access to quality food intersect. The program helps to combat the childhood obesity epidemic that is ravaging particularly the African American and Latino communities while honoring many families’ cultures.

Under Linda's leadership, Common Threads has grown from the basement of St. Paul the Redeemer Church, in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood to 28 locations across the nation, and has broadened its curricular focus to include specific messaging about nutritious eating and making healthy food choices.

Prior to launching Common Threads, Linda worked in pharmaceutical advertising; however, a desire to make a difference in the community led her to an internship with Illinois Senator Dick Durbin and later to a position with the community-development savvy ShoreBank. Linda has an M.S. in Public Service Administration from DePaul University; was a 2009  Scholarship recipient and attendant of Harvard Business School’s Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management; has been a Kellogg School of Management Board Governance Fellowship Mentor; and serves on the Building a Healthier Chicago Task Force.  She is the 2010 recipient of the Anti-Defamation League’s Rising Star Award.

She and her husband, Nick and their two children, Zachary and Julia, live in downtown Chicago. She enjoys sheep’s milk cheeses and crackers and the bigger and better version of an Oreo, a Whoopie Pie.

Kristen Baxter
Development Assistant
ph 312.329.2501
fx 312.277.9517
kristen@commonthreads.org
Mimi Chacin
City Program Coordinator, Miami
ph 786.238.0963
fx 312.277.9517
Mimi@commonthreads.org
Bill Finn
Volunteer Coordinator
ph 312.329.2501 x204
fx 312.277.9517
bfinn@commonthreads.org
Stephanie Folkens
Program Coordinator
ph 312.259.2501
fx 312.277.9517
sfolkens@commonthreads.org
Eleanor Leichenko
Development Manager, Events and Individual Giving
ph 312.329.2501
fx 312.277.9517
Eleanor@commonthreads.org
Linda Novick O'Keefe
Executive Director
ph 312.329.2501
fx 312.277.9517
Linda@commonthreads.org
Jill Reid
National Director of Development and Communications
ph 312.329.2501 x 202
fx 312-277-9517
jreid@commonthreads.org
Susan Reilly
City Program Manager, DC
ph 202.660.3286
fx
reilly@commonthreads.org
Justin Smith
Program Manager
ph 312-329-2501 x 217
fx 312-277-9517
jsmith@commonthreads.org
Courtenay Strickland
Miami Development Manager
ph 305.457.5422
fx 312.277.9517
cstrickland@commonthreads.org
Courtney Turner
Culinary Program Manager
ph 312.329.2501
fx 312.277.9517
Courtney@commonthreads.org
Mary Ann Weprin
Program Enhancement Manager
ph 312.329.2501
fx 312.277.9517
Maryann@commonthreads.org
April Wiencek
National Program Manager
ph 312-329-2501 x 210
fx 312-277-9517
AWiencek@commonthreads.org
Dawn Woollen
Los Angeles City Manager
ph 323.836.9075
fx 312.277.9517
dwoollen@commonthreads.org
Hannah Whitehead
Office Assistant
ph 312.329.2501 x 200
fx 312.277.9517
hwhitehead@commonthreads.org
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