Deeply Chicago & Tech Fellowship
Application Deadline: January 12, 2026
Session Dates: February 3 · April 7 · May 12 · July 21 · September 15 · November 17, 2026
For tech leaders who want to understand Chicago more deeply — and shape its future with intention.
Chicago is one of the most complex, diverse, and historically rich cities in the world. Yet many leaders work in Chicago without fully working with Chicago — its history, its neighborhoods, its civic fabric, and the forces shaping the city's next era.
The Deeply Chicago & Tech Fellowship is a Tuesday Tech Book Club accelerator for tech leaders who want to go beyond headlines and networking events to understand the city they’re helping shape. It’s for people who are passionate about Chicago as a place to live, build, invest, raise families, and drive change — and who want to anchor their leadership in a deeper sense of place.
Across six Tuesday sessions, a small, fixed cohort of twelve participants meets for media-anchored discussions exploring Chicago’s identity, inequities, creativity, resilience, and activism. Media will span biography, history, sociology, innovation, science, and civic design — giving participants space to reconsider what it means to build in Chicago today.
Each session is hosted by a Chicago tech or civic leader who welcomes the group into their workspace. These conversations move beyond professional roles into questions of responsibility, belonging, and what it means to lead in a city undergoing profound change.
This is a place-based leadership accelerator — designed to help tech leaders deepen their connection to Chicago, learn from its complexity, and build relationships across sectors that strengthen both their work and the region.
Whether you’re new to the city, returning to it, or ready to engage with it more intentionally, Deeply Chicago offers a rare space to think, reflect, and explore what it means to get to know a city more deeply with a close group of other tech professionals.
Program Details:
Schedule: Six Tuesdays · 12:00–2:00 PM · February–November 2026
Session Dates: February 3 · April 7 · May 12 · July 21 · September 15 · November 17, 2026
Application Deadline: January 12, 2026. Limited seats available. Applications are reviewed and accepted on a rolling basis.
Location: Hosted by fellow tech and civic leaders; sessions held in or near Chicago’s Central Business District
Lunch: Everything is better with food and fellowship
Pricing: $1,250 ($250 × 5 payments) + optional add-ons
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Co-facilitator, Deeply Chicago
Founder and CEO, Intentional Gravity
Director of Platform, PACE Healthcare CapitalI’m an executive and entrepreneur with a two-decade track record of building companies, organizations, platforms, and catalytic communities that bring together the people shaping the future of innovation - entrepreneurs, scientists, innovators, corporations, investors, operators, and civic leaders.
Trained as an economist and grounded as a creator and connector, I’ve worked across industries—from biotech to fintech, food innovation to climate tech. I specialize in seeing patterns others miss, bridging siloed spaces, and helping individuals and organizations make intentional choices to create new value and shift their trajectories.
I’ve held senior leadership roles across the private and nonprofit sectors, including founding Intentional Gravity to advance people-centered tech; helping scale Portal Innovations into a national biotech venture platform; leading strategic programs at the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center; and positioning the Kauffman Foundation as a global leader in innovation. My work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other national outlets.
Today, I focus on coaching leaders, advising organizations, and designing communities where deeper connection fuels meaningful progress. I’m especially drawn to smaller, trusted groups, spaces where people can be honest about hard choices, map out their next moves, and support one another with clarity and courage.
I often work with explorers: the curious, mission-driven professionals navigating complex systems and building what’s next. My role is part coach, part strategist, and part mission control - helping gather the right people, tighten their orbits, and gain velocity for change and impact. -
Co-Facilitator, Deeply Chicago
Education Policy Associate, Illinois Science and Technology CoalitionColleen Falconer is an educator and community practitioner whose work centers on youth development, inquiry, and social change. Newer to Chicago, Colleen was drawn to the city’s long history of collective action, organizing, and innovation, and she brings that same spirit into her facilitation.
As an Education Policy Associate at the Illinois Science and Technology Coalition, she supports statewide efforts to expand mentorship, STEM opportunities, and pathways that connect students to the broader innovation ecosystem. Her background spans community engagement, volunteer leadership, and curriculum design across Chicago and Worcester, with a consistent focus on empowering young people and strengthening community capacity.
Colleen holds an MA in Community Development and Planning from Clark University. Outside of work, she is a musician, printmaker, and avid lake swimmer who finds grounding in creative practice and in the textures of her adopted city.
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Host, Deeply Chicago & Tech
CEO, M. Harris & Co.
Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship, Chicago BoothMelissa Harris is a communications strategist, entrepreneur, and storyteller whose work helps ideas and institutions become unforgettable. A longtime Chicagoan, Melissa is drawn to the city’s layered histories, contradictions, and voices, and she is especially interested in how looking back can deepen how we lead, communicate, and build in the present.
She is the founder of M. Harris & Co., a Clio Award–winning marketing agency focused on science communications, particularly in climate, advanced technology, and public health. With Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Mary Schmich, she also co-founded Mary & Melissa Productions, which released Division Street Revisited in January 2025, a seven-part podcast inspired by Studs Terkel’s Division Street: America. The series was distributed by PRX and aired on WBEZ Chicago and WNYC.
Melissa began her career as a journalist, spending 15 years in media and serving as a business columnist for the Chicago Tribune. She later moved into private equity and entrepreneurship, helping raise more than $70 million and launching an online investing platform while earning her MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She now teaches Building a New Venture at Booth and serves on the governing board of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
Melissa lives in Chicago’s North Center neighborhood with her husband and two children, where she continues to explore how storytelling, history, and curiosity shape meaningful work and civic life.
Tuesday Tech Book Clubs
4 Different Tracks = 4 Different Accelerators
Application Deadlines: Early 2026 (program specific)
Join a cozy group of tech leaders with similar interests connecting in a private, shared conversation centered around a book or piece of media so you can advance your career in a more intentional way.
Tuesday Tech Book Clubs in 2026 will operate four distinct fellowship programs, each giving a different focus to explorations, conversations, and members.
🤖 AI for Executives. For executives across tech.
🤝 AI for Managers. For managers NOT WORKING AT AI COMPANIES integrating AI into their management, processes, and systems.
💪 Beyond the Bench. For scientists ready to grow beyond the lab, this small group of researchers and R&D professionals connects with peers and guest speakers to explore leadership, management, and career growth across science and business.
❤️ Deeply Chicago. For civic-minded tech professionals building with love and curiosity for this city.
Schedule: Each Tuesday Tech Book Club meets every two months throughout 2026 with a small, fixed group of twelve accelerator membes (your Tuesday Tech Book Club accelerator) for a private, two-hour conversation around one book or piece of media.
Application Deadline: Varies by program. Reviewed and accepted on a rolling basis.
Locations: Meetings take place during the work day (typically 12-2pm) and are hosted in and around the Central Business District of Chicago.
Committment: Participants commit to attending consistently and engage fully across the year, building trust and connection with their accelerator members through shared experiences.
Confidentiality: Meetings follow Chatham House rules to encourage candor, reflection, and curiosity. All Fellows are given the option of being included in a public announcement of their acceptance and completion.
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Deeply Chicago is for tech leaders who want to feel more connected to the city they call home — whether you’ve lived here for decades, just arrived, or telecommute from a neighborhood you’re still getting to know.
Participants come from across the innovation economy — product, engineering, science, design, venture, data, civic tech — but share a desire to understand Chicago more intentionally and to build relationships with others who care deeply about the city’s future.
This is a program for the curious and committed — for people who want to explore Chicago not just as a backdrop for their work, but as a place they live, contribute to, and help shape.
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Chicago is always evolving, industries shifting, and civic challenges and opportunities abound. It’s a city filled with talent and possibility, but also inequity and untold stories.
Tech leaders have a growing role in shaping what comes next — yet most have few places to pause, learn, and reflect on Chicago beyond their daily work.
Deeply Chicago offers:A grounded sense of place — understanding the forces that shaped the city
A space to reflect on responsibility — how your work intersects with civic life
A trusted network — a bench of peers learning alongside you in real time
A way to belong — to step into Chicago’s next era with more context and intention
Leaders build better organizations when they understand the city they’re building them in.
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Deeply Chicago meets six times across 2026, each session anchored by a single book or media piece that illuminates an aspect of Chicago — its culture, innovation, communities, inequities, or evolution.
Here’s how it works:
One small cohort of twelve tech leaders commits for the year
Book-anchored discussions offer shared context without heavy homework
Sessions are hosted in or near downtown, each with an outside guest speaker
Conversations stay confidential under Chatham House rules
Place-based learning connects professional leadership to the city’s story
By the end of the year, participants won’t just know more about Chicago — they’ll feel more connected to it and more equipped to lead within it.
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Book-anchored Learning — Each session is built around a thoughtful piece of media connecting to the city from different perspectives.
Cross-industry Cohort — Perspective from other leaders in tech.
Confidential, Closed-door Environment — A trusted space to compare approaches and discuss challenges openly.
Built-in Peer Bench — A curated group of tech peers passionate about exploring the city.
Hosted across Central Chicago — Accessible, consistent, and anchored in spaces where real transformation is happening.
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1:1 Coaching
Members of Tuesday Tech Book Clubs get an additional 10 percent off all IG coaching rates.
Personalized coaching is not included in the program but is available at a discounted, additional rate.
Priority Booking for Gravity Unplugged Events
Early access to supplemental private events.
Gravity Unplugged salons bring guest leaders across tech, science, and civic innovation together in small, private settings.
Access to Specialized Workshops
Reserved or discounted entry for standalone workshops from Intentional Gravity.
