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.
Mimi Chacin
Brooke Glass
Eleanor Leichenko
Allison Liefer
Linda Novick O'Keefe
Linnzie Pandel
Jillayne Samatas
Sarah Stephens
Courtney Treutelaar
Mary Ann Weprin
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 also a 2010 nominee for Crains Chicago 40 Under 40 and 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.