E.J. Reedy is an executive, entrepreneur, and community builder with a two-decade track record of creating companies, platforms, and catalytic communities that bring together the people shaping the future of innovation. His work sits at the intersection of entrepreneurship, science, capital, and civic leadership, connecting entrepreneurs, scientists, investors, operators, and institutions in ways that unlock new value.

Trained as an economist and grounded as a creator and connector, E.J. has worked across industries including biotech, fintech, food innovation, and climate tech. He is known for seeing patterns others miss, bridging siloed spaces, and helping individuals and organizations make intentional choices that shift trajectories rather than simply accelerate the status quo.

E.J. has moved to Chicago three separate times and has lived and worked in the city for a total of twenty years, building his career in and alongside the tech ecosystem. His leadership experience spans both the private and nonprofit sectors. He founded Intentional Gravity to advance people-centered technology and leadership, helped scale Portal Innovations into a national biotech venture platform, led strategic programs at the University of Chicago Polsky Center, and worked to position the Kauffman Foundation as a global leader in innovation and entrepreneurship. His work and insights have been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other national outlets.

Today, E.J. focuses on coaching leaders, advising organizations, and designing communities where deeper connection fuels meaningful progress. He is especially drawn to smaller, trusted groups, spaces where people can be honest about hard choices, clarify what matters most, and support one another with intention and courage.

He often works with explorers: curious, mission-driven professionals navigating complexity and building what comes next. His role is part coach, part strategist, and part mission control, helping gather the right people, tighten their orbits, and generate the momentum needed for lasting impact.

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Colleen Falconer is an educator and community activist 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.Read more.

Laura Appenzeller is an innovation and ecosystem leader whose work focuses on translating research into real-world impact through durable partnerships between universities, industry, startups, and government. She has spent her career building environments where discovery, talent, and capital come together to drive long-term regional growth.

Laura serves as Executive Director of the University of Illinois Research Park and Assistant Vice Chancellor for Innovation at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she supports research commercialization, industry engagement, and entrepreneurship. Under her leadership, the Research Park has grown into a vibrant on-campus business ecosystem supporting more than 120 companies and thousands of employees and student interns, while hosting programs that foster collaboration, peer learning, and applied innovation.

In addition to her work in Champaign-Urbana, Laura was the founding Chief Operating Officer of the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park, where she helped lay the foundation for a new, globally significant hub for quantum and microelectronics technologies in Chicago. Her work there focused on infrastructure, operations, and partnership development across a complex public-private ecosystem.

Laura is deeply engaged in Illinois’s broader innovation and civic landscape, serving on the board of the Illinois Science and Technology Coalition, the Champaign County Economic Development Corporation, and the Illinois Clean Energy and Resilience Fund, among others. A graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, she remains a strong advocate for public universities as engines of opportunity, talent development, and economic resilience.

Bob Greenlee is a civic strategist and operator whose work bridges public policy, regulation, and innovation. Based in Chicago, Bob brings deep experience helping organizations navigate complex regulatory environments and build durable strategies at the intersection of government, markets, and public trust.

Bob is the Chief Operating Officer of Tusk Holdings and President of Tusk Philanthropies. Since the firm’s inception, he has led regulatory advisory work for Tusk Venture Partners portfolio companies, including campaigns supporting companies such as Kodiak, Bird, and FanDuel. Since 2013, he has also led regulatory and public affairs campaigns for Tusk Strategies clients across a range of sectors.

Before joining Tusk, Bob served as Deputy Governor of the State of Illinois and practiced law at Quinlan Law Firm and Kirkland & Ellis LLP. His career reflects a sustained commitment to understanding how policy, power, and institutions shape real-world outcomes for companies and communities alike.

Bob is a graduate of Yale University and the University of Chicago, where he earned both his JD and PhD. He is based in Chicago, where he manages the firm’s Chicago office and remains actively engaged in the city’s civic and innovation ecosystem.

Host, Deeply Chicago & Tech
CEO, M. Harris & Kern
Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship, Chicago Booth

Melissa 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.

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Mark Ishaug is a nonprofit leader and advocate whose work centers on dignity, belonging, and care for people too often pushed to the margins. As President and CEO of Thresholds, Mark has led a period of expansive growth and organizational transformation, shaping a culture rooted in transparency, innovation, and compassion.

Under his leadership, Thresholds has been recognized for ten consecutive years as a Chicago Tribune Top Workplace and as one of Chicago’s 101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For. Mark is known for embracing change with clarity and heart, and for naming love as a legitimate and necessary force in organizational life.

Before joining Thresholds, Mark served as CEO of AIDS Foundation of Chicago, where he was a leader in the fight against HIV/AIDS and an advocate for public health, equity, and human rights. His career reflects a consistent commitment to building institutions that meet people where they are and expand what care can look like.

Mark serves on the boards of Dominican University, the Civic Federation of Chicago, the Alphawood Foundation, and the National Register of Health Service Psychologists, and is active with the Economic Club of Chicago and Leadership Greater Chicago. He holds a master’s degree from Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree from University of Notre Dame.

Tim Turner is a data and insights executive whose work sits at the intersection of analytics, equity, and systems change. For more than a decade, he has led teams that bring clarity to complex questions, using data to illuminate community realities, strengthen organizational decision-making, and expand opportunity for people and neighborhoods most affected by structural inequities.

Tim serves as Vice President of Business Insights & Data Analytics at Thresholds, where he leads the development of enterprise-wide intelligence systems supporting one of Chicago’s most critical mental health organizations. His work spans cloud-enabled data architecture, operational dashboards, executive scorecards, and analytic readiness across the enterprise, all in service of improving access, outcomes, and equity.

Previously, Tim was Director of Pharmacy Insights at Walgreens, where he guided teams of analysts and data scientists delivering high-impact insights across Pharmacy, Marketing, Operations, Finance, and Merchandising. His leadership helped reverse multimillion-dollar performance declines and advance national strategies related to patient retention, customer experience, and health equity for vulnerable populations.

Tim’s civic commitments mirror the values in his professional work. He is President of the IMPACT Alumni Association with the Chicago Urban League and Chair of the Associate Board at BUILD Chicago, supporting youth development, community safety, and leadership pathways across the city.

Across roles at Harvard Kennedy School, Stax, GoHealth, the University of Chicago Polsky Center, Walgreens, and Thresholds, Tim has built a career grounded in analytical rigor, team development, and community impact. He brings a systems-level perspective to every challenge, connecting data, strategy, and human outcomes in service of more equitable decisions and stronger organizations.