Who We Are

Sandy Matthews has returned to Illinois Action for Children in a new role as Vice President of Organization Advancement after serving as Chief of Staff to the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education. In this new role she is responsible for organizational relationship development, building strategic partnerships, and generating revenue through foundations and corporate donors. Prior to her position in the Obama administration, she was vice President of External Relations at Illinois Action for Children from 2007 - 2010. 

Sandy possesses more than 20 years of public affairs and communications experience with a variety of organizations including the Chicago Sun-Times, the Michael & Juanita Jordan Foundation, and the City Colleges of Chicago. A graduate of North Central College with a B.A. in English and French, Sandy earned a Masters of Jurisprudence in Child and Family Law from Loyola Law School in Chicago.

Mark Barrett serves as the Vice President, Early Learning Programs, for Illinois Action for Children. He is responsible for the oversight of the department’s early learning programs providing leadership and operational direction. In his previous role as the Director, Early Learning Quality Improvement, Mark successfully led IAFC through its first monitoring review by the Office of Head Start and was instrumental in helping the program earn NAEYC Accreditation and a Gold designation in the Illinois ExceleRate Circles of Quality.

Before joining the Early Learning program, he served as the Director of Compliance and Outreach for IAFC’s Family Resources Department. In this role, he provided oversight of compliance, ensured completion of contract deliverables, provided outreach, and customer service support. Before his work with IAFC, Barrett was the Director of Child Development programs at Ada. S. McKinley Community Service, where he managed a $5.5 million budget, managed a team of nine staff and ensured services complied with licensing and accrediting requirement

Mark has over 20 years of experience working with children and families in early childhood education and holds a master’s degree in social work.

Arlene Mitchell-Pace serves as Illinois Action For Children's Vice President of Human Resources and brings over 15 years of experience. Arlene previously worked as the Chief Human Resources Officer for Edgewater Health. 

Her work experience includes working for not-for-profits, private sectors, post-secondary and secondary schools in different functions. Arlene earned a doctoral degree in business administration from the University of Phoenix, a master's in business administration from Purdue University Calumet, and a bachelor's of science degree from Indiana University Northwest. She is a board member of the Kankakee County Branch NAACP, Northwest Indiana United Negro College Fund, 21st Century Charter Schools, Workforce Investment Board, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and many more. Arlene is married and has three children, three "bonus" children, and four grandchildren.  

Chris Tokarski has been with Illinois Action for Children for nearly 21 years. He started his career as a Family Resources Specialist and has held a variety of roles within the Family Resources and Quality Assurance teams. His goal is to make IAFCs state-contracted programs simple, streamlined, and accessible to the families, child care providers, and communities we serve.  

Chris sits on multiple state-wide committees working to improve Child Care Assistance Program policy. He is a proud graduate of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has completed graduate work at North Park University, and is an alumni of the Barbara Bowman Leadership Fellowship.  

Jacqueline (Jackie) Zanders serves as Illinois Action for Children's Chief Financial Officer, bringing more than 25 years of experience in both corporate and non-profit financial management to the organization. Jackie joined Illinois Action for Children in 2002 as the Director of Finance and continues to lead the finance function and ensure alignment with the organization's strategic goals. She joined IAFC after spending 10 years as Division Controller for the Food Products Division of Dean Foods and worked as a Financial Analyst for Ford Motor Company. 

Jackie earned her Master of Science in Public Policy and Management with a concentration in financial management from Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz School of Public Policy. She also holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Mississippi State University with a concentration in Business Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis. 

Grace Araya is the Vice President of Community Impact. In this role, she will continue to provide strategic oversight of the Community Systems Statewide Supports program and take a leadership role over the Community Parenting Support Saturation program, the Referrals and Outreach teams as well as supporting our Chicago and Cook County programs.

Prior to this role, Grace was instrumental in launching the Community Systems Statewide Supports training and technical assistance (T/TA) program for local collaborations. Most recently, she has provided leadership in building out T/TA supports for the Birth to Five Illinois regional community systems effort. Before joining Illinois Action for Children, Grace worked as the Director for Eyes on the Future in Chicago.

Grace brings nearly 20 years of experience in early childhood education to her work advancing systems change and engaging community stakeholders through racial equity and human-centered approaches.

Grace has a Bachelor of Science in Human Development and Family Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Master of Art of Early Childhood Education from Roosevelt University, and a Master of Social Service Administration from the University of Chicago.

Angela Farwig is the Vice President of Public Policy, Advocacy and Research. In this role, Angela will continue improving public policy in early child care and education and building organizational capacity, at the grassroots level. She will serve as the key policy leader for IAFC with multiple constituencies including other nonprofit organizations, foundations, agency staff and leadership, and statewide county and locally elected officials.

Previously, she was the Senior Policy Advisor at Advance Illinois and served as co-chair of the Policy Committee of the diverse statewide coalition We, The Village. Angela has also held roles at numerous organizations committed to childhood education including Flourish Strategies, the Community Learning Center Institute, Start Early (formerly Ounce of Prevention Fund), and the Loyola University Chicago Center for Urban Research and Learning.

Angela has a Master of Public Policy from Loyola University Chicago and a Juris Doctor from Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law.

Maria Whelan had served as Illinois Action for Children's President and CEO since 2001. She led the organization's mission to support strong families and powerful communities where children matter most, through the advancement of innovative human services programs and responsive public policies that improve conditions for children and families in Illinois. 

Read about Maria Whelan’s Life and Legacy »

An authority in the early care and education field, Maria possessed over 30 years of experience in human services. Prior to joining Illinois Action for Children, she served as the founding Executive Director of the Carole Robertson Center for Learning, a multicultural non-profit partnership among parents, youth and communities on Chicago's West Side. Her leadership has been recognized through special awards and fellowships, including the Community Service Fellowship from the Chicago Community Trust, and Leadership Greater Chicago. She served on several boards, including the Illinois Early Learning Council, Illinois Network of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, Early Childhood Advisory Committee - Chicago Public Schools and Illinois Child Care Adviosry Council - Illinois Department of Human Services. 

Maria held a master's degree in Social Services from the University of Chicago, and a Bachelor's degree in History from Clarke College. She lived in Chicago with her husband and three daughters.