News & Stories

New Faces and Bold Goals for Chicago

Meghan Harte
11.15.2019

The Chicago LISC office is in the midst of an ambitious effort to focus our impact in economic opportunity and economic and community development. This led us to coordinating our work under six bold goals:

  1. 6,000 individuals increase income, net worth or credit – with a foundation in place to double by 2025
  2. 500 small businesses and entrepreneurs will enter a pipeline of support
  3. 750 living wage jobs created in our partner neighborhoods
  4. Quality-of-Life Plans leverage $500M investment in community priorities
  5. Increase LISC lending commitments to $20M per year by 2020 with at least 60% (#) supporting our communities’ priorities in Quality-of-Life Plans
  6. LISC contributes to increases in organization, community and network capacity – 10 communities, 20 organizations and 5 policy wins

Over the last year we have sadly said good-bye to some of our team, but we are grateful for their leadership in getting our strategy clear and moving forward. We are also excited for them in their new endeavors. In that time, we have several new faces who are carrying us forward and we wanted to introduce them.

 Community Development

Torrence Moore

Senior Director, Community Development

Lauren Lewis

Assistant Program Officer, Community Development

Jaime Arteage

Program Officer, Community Development

Lending

Todd Dokes

Senior Program Officer, Lending

Alex Ruiz

Program Officer, Small Business

Marcus Yancey

Program Officer, Small Business

Torrence Moore, Senior Director, Community Development

Torrence Moore is an entrepreneur and finance professional with over 25 years of experience consisting of private equity, consulting, alternative investing, commercial banking, and economic and community development at several multinational institutions.

Prior to joining LISC, Moore was the Managing Director of Lending for IFF, a CDFI focused on lending to the nonprofit entities and affordable housing developers in the Midwest. He spent two decades at several large multinational banks, JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America where he gained invaluable experience in commercial banking, venture capital investing, business and real estate lending.

On the entrepreneurial front, Moore has been involved in multiple start-up businesses. He is founder and partner of TMA Consulting, which focuses on assisting nonprofits, entrepreneurs and small businesses in the areas of project finance, technical assistance and program administration. Additionally, he served as one of the founding managing directors of Kiwanja Capital Partners, an emerging private equity firm focused on the acquisition, remediation and redevelopment of brownfield properties in the Midwest and California.

Moore serves on the board of a number of civic organizations in the Chicagoland area including LINK UNLIMITED, Morgan Park Academy, and the Edward G. Irvin Foundation. He also serves on the Board of Governors of the Metropolitan Club of Chicago. Moore obtained his B.A. in Economics from Hamilton College and a Masters of Urban Planning & Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

TMoore@lisc.org
(312) 422-9554

Jaime Arteaga, Program Officer, Community Development

Jaime Arteaga supports communities across Chicago in creating and implementing community-led Quality-of-Life Plans to drive equitable change. In this role, he provides technical assistance to local non-profit agencies, building their capacity to convene local stakeholders, establish priorities and connect to the resources to complete projects highlighted in their Plans.

Prior to joining LISC in 2019, Jaime supported collective impact initiatives across the Chicagoland region at the United Way of Metro Chicago. He has also worked for the Chicago Public Schools, in the violence prevention, youth development and public health space. 

Jaime was a fellow in the University of Chicago’s Civic Leadership Academy in 2017 and a PLACES fellow through the Funders Network’s national fellowship in 2018. Jaime holds a B.A. Degree from DePaul University and is a proud father to 15 year-old Diego. 

JArteaga@lisc.org
(312) 422-9564

Lauren Lewis, Assistant Program Officer, Community Development

Lauren Lewis supports community-led Quality-of-Life Plans across Chicago. Her mission is to serve communities and demonstrate her love for relationship building by listening to her neighbors. From pioneering volleyball clinics to managing and strengthening partnerships between the Chicago Park District, Chicago Public Schools and City Colleges of Chicago, Lauren has helped to engage intergenerational communities. Prior to joining LISC, Lauren led program evaluation efforts in providing quality services alongside major institutions like the Chicago Housing Authority, Illinois Department of Children & Family Services, and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

Connecting education, health and economic development, Lauren serves as an advisor to steering committees and on results-based boards across Chicago. Lauren earned her Master’s Degree in Urban Planning and Public Policy from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She attained her B.S. in Business Administration and Marketing from Eastern Illinois University.

llewis@lisc.org
(312) 422-9567

Todd Dokes, Senior Program Officer, Lending

Todd Dokes started with LISC in September 2019. Prior to LISC, Todd was the Credit Manager at Seaway Bank of Chicago where he was responsible for six credit analysts, review of their work, loan approval, assignment of new loans, maturing loans and monitoring of the entire loan portfolio of the bank. He also worked at Fifth Third Bank in the Business Banking Group as a Portfolio Manager and Heller Financial (GE Financial) supporting the lending team as a Senior Underwriter.

Tood brings 20+ years of lending experience, including Community, C & I, SBA/504, Middle Market and Relationship Management. He graduated from DePaul University of Chicago with a B.S. in Finance.

TDokes@lisc.org
(312) 422-9553

Alex Ruiz, Program Officer, Small Business

Alex Ruiz recently transitioned from his role at Eighteenth Street Development Corporation as the Director of Small Business where he was tasked to start the Pilsen Chamber of Commerce. He was responsible for community outreach, organizing business workshops, networking events and business financial coaching. Prior to ESDC, Alex was Community Lending Manager at Accion Chicago where he managed a team of lenders in various Chicago neighborhoods such as Pilsen, Little Village and Midway by providing access to capital and business coaching to entrepreneurs. Alex was a branch manager at a community bank with 15 years of banking experience. He has a passion for working with entrepreneurs as he is also a licensed real estate broker.

Alex grew up in the Gage Park neighborhood and attended Brother Rice High School. He has made Pilsen his home since 2007. Alex serves on the Pilsen Chamber of Commerce Advisory Committee. You can also find him still playing basketball at the YMCA and a Saturday morning men’s league.

ARuiz@lisc.org
(312) 422-9555

Marcus Yancey, Program Officer, Small Business

Marcus Yancey is an Economic Development and Small Business Lender. He is the founder of Innovative Economic Solutions (IES). IES is a community development consulting firm that assists economic development and community-based organizations, government entities and minority-owned businesses. IES focuses on providing services that enhance entrepreneurial ecosystems, community integration, business resources as well as business development initiatives.     

Prior to the IES, Marcus worked for the Illinois Dept. of Commerce & Economic Opportunity. There he developed, managed and directed all business development programs for minority business initiatives. While at DCEO, Marcus assisted the development of the State ran program, Advancing the Development of Minority Entrepreneurship (ADME), designed to increase business diversity within the state by providing minority owned business with necessary resources to create and grow sustainable businesses. One of Marcus’ greatest accomplishments was being the primary point for the ideology and installation of the Department of Commerce's Office of Minority Economic Empowerment where he served as Deputy Director.

MYancey@lisc.org
(312) 422-9574