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Our Start |
Our Founder |
Our Board |
Our Supporters
Our Founder & Director
Rhonda Present
Evanston, Illinois
Rhonda Present is the proud mom of a 8-year-old daughter and has been an
advocate for parents and children since she began her career in the social
work field nearly 20 years ago.
From 1993 until 2001, Rhonda worked for the Chicago Jobs Council (CJC), a
nonprofit membership organization whose mission is to increase employment
and economic opportunities for people living in poverty. After taking a
four-month maternity leave when her daughter was born in 1997, Rhonda
decided that she wanted to return to work part-time. With the support of her
family-friendly employer, she transitioned from her position as CJC's Senior
Policy Associate to become the organization's Director of Communications, a
job that enabled her to work from her home office. During the years she
spent as both an 'at-home' and a 'paycheck' parent, Rhonda learned
first-hand about the struggles that each face when it comes to having the
time and resources they need to care for their children, but also, how much
they have in common. Her belief that parents could be a powerful force for
social change if they would come together across their divisions is what led
her to leave CJC in 2001 to devote her energies to creating ParentsWork.
To this venture, Rhonda brings extensive skills and a solid track record in:
fostering relationships among diverse individuals and groups to affect
changes in government programs and laws; using the media as a tool for
educating the public and influencing policy decision makers; and, developing
the resources needed to build a successful nonprofit organization. She has
also drawn on her years of work with the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago and
several other youth and family service organizations. Rhonda's experiences
in helping low-income youth and adults overcome barriers to achieving their
education and employment goals continue to inspire her advocacy on
work-family issues.
Rhonda's efforts have been featured in Chicago Parent magazine as well as
several radio and television programs, and her opinions and commentary have appeared in
the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune. She serves on the Board of
Directors of the Center for Work-Life Policy (formerly the National
Parenting Association) and is an active volunteer - in the classroom and
with the PTA - at her daughter's elementary school. Rhonda holds a Master of
Arts degree from the University of Chicago School of Social Service
Administration and a B.A. in English from the University of Texas (Austin).
She lives with her husband, daughter and two cats in Evanston, Illinois.
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