LOCATION
UIS Student Union
2251 Richard Wright Drive
Springfield

COST TO ATTEND
Free
Refreshments will be provided

John Stremsterfer
President and CEO, Community Foundation for the Land of Lincoln

As president and CEO of the Community Foundation for the Land of Lincoln, John Stremsterfer oversees the organization’s development, grant making, expansion, and leadership activities.

Stremsterfer came to the Foundation from the University of Illinois at Springfield (UIS) where he worked for the University of Illinois Foundation. Prior to UIS, he worked for his high school alma mater, Ursuline Academy in Springfield and also spent two years working in the Illinois Governor’s Office, where he was a Dunn Fellow and Legislative Liaison for the Department of Corrections.

John Palfrey
President, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

John Palfrey is president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, one of the nation’s largest philanthropies with assets of approximately $7 billion, and offices in Chicago, New Delhi, and Abuja, Nigeria.

Palfrey is a well-respected educator, author, legal scholar, and innovator with expertise in how new media is changing learning, education, and other institutions. Throughout his career, he has demonstrated a commitment to rigorous thinking, disruption, and creative solutions often made possible by technology, accessibility of information, and diversity and inclusion. Palfrey has extensive experience in social change spanning the education, nonprofit, and philanthropic sectors.

Evan Smith
Senior Advisor, Emerson Collective

Evan Smith is a senior advisor at Emerson Collective, where he works closely with leaders and funders of local news orgs around the country. He’s also a senior advisor at The Texas Tribune, the pioneering nonprofit digital news organization he cofounded in 2009 and led for more than thirteen years as CEO, and he’s a Distinguished Fellow in Journalism at the University of Virginia’s Karsh Institute of Democracy. Previously he spent eighteen years at Texas Monthly, including nine years as the magazine’s editor in chief and a year as its president. Evan is the host of “Overheard with Evan Smith,” a weekly half-hour interview program that airs on PBS stations around the country. A native of New York, he’s a graduate of Hamilton College, which awarded him an honorary degree in 2023, and Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, which inducted him into its Hall of Achievement in 2006.

Hannah Meisel
State Government and Politics Reporter, Capitol News Illinois

Hannah Meisel has spent the last decade covering Illinois government and politics for a variety of outlets, most recently for NPR Illinois in Springfield before joining Capitol News Illinois in January 2023. She is a graduate of the Public Affairs Reporting master’s program at the University of Illinois’ Springfield campus after getting a degree in journalism at the U of I Urbana-Champaign. In 2020 The Washington Post named Hannah one of the best political reporters in Illinois and in 2021, she won the Illinois News Broadcasters Association’s Crystal Mic award for best small market radio reporter in the state.

Jennifer Kho
Executive Editor, Chicago Sun-Times

Jennifer Kho is the executive editor of the Chicago Sun-Times and passionate about community-centered journalism. She previously served as the managing editor of the Guardian US, the managing editor and senior vice president of strategic innovation of HuffPost, and the vice president of journalism and information equity of sustainability consultancy DoGoodery. Kho has also conducted journalism research on building healthy news communities, solutions journalism, news habits and gaps. She serves as an adviser for Bay City News Foundation, The Diversity Pledge Institute and The Pivot Fund, and as a subject matter expert for A Picture’s Worth. In October, she completed her term as board president of the Journalism & Women Symposium (JAWS). Aside from JAWS, she’s also a member of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) and the Online News Association (ONA).

Bernard Schoenburg
Retired political writer and columnist

Bernard Schoenburg wrote for The State Journal-Register in Springfield for 30 years and was the newspaper’s political writer and columnist for 28 of those years before retiring on December 1, 2020. His earlier positions included reporter and shift supervisor for The Associated Press in Chicago and reporter and columnist for The Pantagraph of Bloomington. His career highlights include covering the Illinois delegations to seven national political conventions, the 2009 inauguration of President Barack Obama, and serving on a four-person team of reporters who won a national George Polk Award for political reporting in 1993 for a series of articles in The State Journal-Register linking state contracts to campaign contributions. The series, called “Cash Transactions,” was later reprinted in a book titled Illinois For Sale:  Do Campaign Contributions Buy Influence? A native of Evanston, IL, Bernard attended the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, which inducted him into the Illini Media Hall of Fame in 2022 for professional accomplishments after working for the campus newspaper The Daily Illini. Earlier this year, Bernard received the distinguished service award from the Illinois Press Association.

LOCATION
Memorial Learning Center
228 W. Miller Street
Springfield

COST TO ATTEND
Free
Continental breakfast

LOCATION
Ace Sign Co. Museum
2540 S. 1^st Street
Springfield

COST TO ATTEND
$10
Heavy hors d’oeuvres, cash bar

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