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Kathy Ryg (download high resolution photo)
President

Witnessing Illinois families struggle in the face of the state’s economic crisis and embracing her lifelong conviction to impact the lives of children and families compelled Kathy Ryg to join Voices as president beginning Sept. 1, 2009. Service to the many, varied needs of children and families has long marked her work in the public service sector.

Ms. Ryg has devoted two decades of her life to public service at the municipal, county and state levels, capped by seven years as a state legislator from the 59th Representative District. She is widely regarded in the Illinois General Assembly as a leader on many issues of great importance to children and families. Members of both parties and both legislative chambers praise her bipartisan, consensus-building approach to identifying and tackling public-policy challenges.

Ms. Ryg was a member of the Illinois Children’s Mental Health Partnership and a forceful proponent of its work to strengthen prevention, early intervention and treatment for youngsters’ social and emotional needs. She has worked tirelessly to improve early learning opportunities for young children, bolster after-school programs and services for youths in need and increase schools’ quality and accountability. Ms. Ryg chaired the House Disabilities Services Committee and was a consistent voice for greater support of underfunded health and human services.

Before her election to the General Assembly, Ms. Ryg served Vernon Hills as village trustee and clerk and spent six years as chief deputy recorder of deeds in Lake County. Prior to that, she worked as a counselor and administrator in programs serving the developmentally disabled and the mentally ill in the northwest suburbs of Chicago.

Ms. Ryg has served as co-president of the Lake County After-School Coalition and co-chair of the Lake County YMCA Healthy Lake County initiative, among her many affiliations with community and business organizations. Her dozens of honors have included “legislator of the year” awards from the Arc of Illinois, National Association of Social Workers, Illinois Health Care Association, Illinois Association of County Board Members and Commissioners, Illinois Association of School Social Workers and the National Alliance on Mental Illness. In 2007, the Early Learning Illinois campaign partners – including Voices for Illinois Children – named her an “Early Learning Leader” for her commitment to young children’s learning.
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Gaylord Gieseke (download high resolution photo)
Vice President

Gaylord Gieseke believes that a firm understanding of child development is the basis of good public policy for children and families. Focusing on how children grow — and what they need at different ages — leads to proactive policy that lays the foundation to support healthy development. 

During her 21-year tenure, Ms. Gieseke has led Voices' efforts for developing policy analysis and recommendations in the areas of tax policy, children's mental health, child welfare, child abuse prevention, family support, welfare reform, early intervention for children with developmental disabilities and education. Many of her efforts have involved building collaborative partnerships and engaging in administrative and legislative advocacy. She has served on and been in the leadership of many statewide advisory groups and task forces.

Ms. Gieseke is currently a member of the Executive Committee and the Management Team of the Illinois Children's Mental Health Partnership and serves as Co-Chair of the Birth to Five Committee. She has served as the Co-Chair of the Healthy Families Illinois Initiative for many years, after having co-authored the original enabling legislation. Recently, she was asked to Co-Chair the Illinois Strong Foundations Task Force that will lead a five-year federal grant award to further the state's early childhood home visiting efforts. She served as the national Co-Chair of the State Leaders Advisory Committee of Prevent Child Abuse America, as well as currently serving as the Co-Chair of the Building Resiliency Committee and on the Leadership Committee of the Illinois Strengthening Families Initiative. In addition, she is also a member of the Executive Team for the Illinois Childhood Trauma Coalition.

Ms. Gieseke's many honors include the 1997 National Association of Child Advocates' Professional Child Advocate Award and the 2001 Prevent Child Abuse Illinois' Friend of Children Award. In 2003, she was named Public Citizen of the Year by NASW Illinois.

Prior to coming to Voices for Illinois Children, Ms. Gieseke worked in business, community-based nonprofit and child advocacy organizations.
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Shawn Gavin
Shawn Gavin believes that fundraising is about connecting people to their passion about what they want to achieve in the world. As Director of Development at Voices for Illinois Children, he enjoys being part of an organization that is working to improve the lives of thousands of children through positive public policy changes. Prior to joining Voices in 2005, Mr. Gavin served as director of development at Lawrence Hall Youth Services in Chicago, where he managed all facets of an annual giving campaign, including individual giving, corporate, foundation and church relations, United Way and special events. He provided expert fundraising and management counsel to nonprofit organizations as a consultant with The Alford Group in Chicago and also worked at The Charles F. Kettering Foundation in Dayton, Ohio. Mr. Gavin graduated from Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Mich., with a bachelor's degree in political science. He and his wife, Lisa, enjoy dining out and traveling to Michigan's wine country.
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Pat Gonzalez
Pat Gonzalez was the fourth person hired at Voices for Illinois Children in 1987. She was instrumental in getting Voices started by helping to develop the organization's bookkeeping and financial policies. Ms. Gonzalez has served as Fiscal Manager for the past 17 years. As a parent who was active in her children's schooling, she believes strongly in Voices' efforts to involve parents and concerned citizens in speaking out on behalf of children. A project that encouraged parents to run for Local School Council in Chicago public schools and the creation of Voices Leadership Committees shows parents that their voices do matter. Prior to joining Voices, Ms. Gonzalez was assistant bookkeeper at a financial company. She and her husband, Louis Garcia, have two children, Jaime and Kristen, and three grandchildren. She enjoys getting hooked on TV shows, watching movies, reading and spending time with her grandchildren.
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Larry Joseph
Larry Joseph sees his work at Voices for Illinois Children as trying to solve a puzzle: what data need to be shared, in what manner, and with what audience to result in positive policy changes for children. As Director of Voices' Budget & Tax Policy Initiative, Mr. Joseph oversees research and analysis on state fiscal policies and their impact on the lives of children and their families. Prior to joining Voices in 2007, he was senior research associate at the Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago, where he did policy analysis on Medicaid, welfare reform and fiscal federalism. He previously served as associate director of the University's Center for Urban Research and Policy Studies in the School of Social Service Administration (1987 to 1996) and in the Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy (1996 to 2003).

For 10 years, Mr. Joseph collaborated with Voices in organizing the highly regarded Illinois Welfare Policy Symposium, which examines policies and programs affecting low-income families and advances strategies for reducing poverty and expanding economic opportunity. Mr. Joseph earned his doctorate in political science from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He also has a master's degree in public policy studies from the University of Chicago and a bachelor's degree from Brandeis University. He and his wife, attorney Lauren Newman, have a teenage daughter, Carol.
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Manya Khan
Manya Khan is the budget and tax policy analyst and conducts research and analysis on state legislative and fiscal policies that affect the lives of Illinois' children and families. She believes that influencing public policy, lawmakers and citizens for a responsible government that benefits children, families and communities is essential. Prior to joining Voices in 2009, she worked for The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, D.C. As the Project Assistant for the Federal Budget Initiative she worked on advocacy efforts for federal legislative and fiscal policies benefiting low-income, working families. She holds a BS in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin - Madison and a Master of Public Administration/Financial Management from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
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Melissa Meighen
Melissa Meighen, director of communications, brings to Voices a career-long dedication to social justice and a personal passion to create positive change for kids and families. Before joining Voices, she applied her experience and enthusiasm on behalf of her agency clients at Kathy Schaeffer and Associates in Chicago and, before that, at The Kamber Group in New York City. Her work with various community non-profits, labor unions, and women's and children's health, education and safety issues ensures an understanding of the challenges families face today. "Technology affords us an even greater capacity to enlist—and galvanize—more citizens than ever before," Ms. Meighen says. "But we need to remember that it's often the personal touch, and a human connection, which compel us to move beyond interest and into action." Ms. Meighen has a bachelor's degree in journalism and a master's degree in English language and literature, both from Kent State University. She and her husband, Bill McGrath, and their son, William, live in Aurora.
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Dawn Melchiorre
Dawn Melchiorre's path to public policy work started with a persistent single mother who wanted her daughter to go to preschool, but couldn't afford it. As president of a cooperative preschool, Ms. Melchiorre spearheaded program changes that allowed children in home-based child care settings to attend preschool. Ms. Melchiorre focuses on health and development issues including children's mental health, Early Intervention and health insurance as Senior Policy Associate at Voices for Illinois Children. Prior to joining Voices in 2005, she was a small business owner. Her civic activities included being a Court Appointed Special Advocates volunteer and serving as secretary and board member of Illinois Action for Children, the organization that oversaw the Cook County CASA program. Ms. Melchiorre has a master's degree in public service from DePaul University and a bachelor's degree from Loyola University Chicago. She and her husband, Rudy, have three young children: Sisi, Michael and Rudy. They enjoy movies and attending and participating in sporting events.
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Sean Noble
The picture on Sean Noble's computer depicts Bobby Kennedy talking with children living in devastating poverty in the Mississippi Delta in 1967. Mr. Noble shares Kennedy's reaction to the scene: how can we let this happen? That passion to make a difference led Mr. Noble in 2001 to join Voices for Illinois Children where, as Director of Government Relations, he helps coordinate the policy and advocacy work of broad-based coalitions working on preschool, school-funding reform and tax credits for working families. In 2003, he played a leading role in the permanent reauthorization and expansion of the Illinois earned income tax credit, which benefits more than 750,000 low-income, working families. Mr. Noble previously spent more than a decade as a reporter at daily newspapers throughout Illinois, primarily covering education. He ended his journalism career as chief of Copley News Service's Chicago bureau. Mr. Noble holds a master's degree in public affairs reporting from the University of Illinois at Springfield and a bachelor's degree in public relations journalism from Northern Illinois University. He is a fan of the Chicago Cubs and Green Bay Packers and enjoys music, biking, running and reading history and biographies. His wife, Mary McDermott, is an attorney.
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Kelley Talbot
As Policy Associate at Voices for Illinois Children, Kelley Talbot works to improve families’ everyday quality of life through strengthening their economic security. This includes efforts to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit and foster progressive tax reform. Prior to joining Voices, Ms. Talbot was the Assistant Director of External Relations at the Illinois Board of Higher Education, handling legislative and media affairs. She gained four years of legislative experience while on the Illinois House Democrats’ staff and helped run successful State Representative campaigns in the north suburbs. Ms. Talbot has a bachelor's degree in public policy from Occidental College in Los Angeles.
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Joan Vitale
As Director of Community Engagement at Voices for Illinois Children, Joan Vitale oversees the creation and support of Voices Leadership Committees—groups of civic, community and business leaders and concerned citizens who are passionate about improving children's lives. Ms. Vitale previously directed the parent-education component of Voices' nationally known Start Early: Learning Begins at Birth campaign, which provided young, at-risk parents with information about nurturing and stimulating the crucial brain development that occurs in a baby's first years. The Start Early campaign used an award-winning original video and parenting magazine. Her work included providing training to over 400 service organizations around the state in using the Start Early materials. Prior to joining Voices in 1997, Ms. Vitale was director of the Child & Parent Center at the Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, where she managed support programs for over 300 families. She also participates on a variety of statewide and local boards. She and her husband, Phil, have three children—Andrew, Amy and Melissa—and three grandchildren.
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