Meet the Crew
Jack C. Newell (Co-Founder) is a writer, director, producer, actor, and public artist. He is the co-creator of Destroy Your Art, the co-creator of the public art project, The Wabash Lights and created The Second City Film School at The Second City.
His feature film credits span genres from the comedies including Monuments and Open Tables to the documentaries, 42 Grams and How (not) to Build a School in Haiti. His films have screened theatrically in the US and internationally and have been featured at various film festivals, including the Austin Film Festival, Sidewalk Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival, and have premiered on Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu.
Seth Unger (Co-Founder) is a design and creative strategist, new media expert, and brand consultant. He is currently the Chief Marketing Officer at I3 Group, a workplace integrator that includes Interior Investments, Corporate Concepts, and Intereum. He previously worked for Herman Miller, DIRTT, and Gensler as a Studio Leader and Brand Strategist. While at Gensler, Seth worked with numerous clients including, Motorola, Discover, Caterpillar, co-created the placemaking intervention Neon City, and helped develop the iPhone app PoppySeed.
His fine arts training and experience as a non-profit theater founder, director and producer give him a unique take on the performative aspects of human interaction, space, and creativity. Seth's collaborations have helped facilitate, design, and implement innovative brand, workplace, and creative strategy across diverse areas of focus.
Vinod Havalad, MD, (Board President) is a Director of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine at Advocate Children’s Hospital. Vinod earned his MD from the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, and his BA in Economics from Northwestern.
He grew up in Chicago and is passionate about equitable economic development of the city, and empowering Chicago’s youth through technology, education, and the arts.
Erin Cigliano (Board Member & Socials) is an urban planner, outreach specialist, and visual storyteller. As a Principal at Teska Associates, Inc., she applies her passion for people-centered processes and placemaking to support communities and non-profits throughout the midwest.
Born and raised in Chicago by two artists, Erin's roots have instilled in her a deep appreciation for the diverse tapestry of public art in urban life. Through her work, she continues to weave together stories and help shape spaces that reflect the people and communities she serves.
The Wabash Lights Board
Charles Adler is a Kickstarter co-founder, founder of the online arts journal Subsystence and Source-ID, an independent interaction design studio. Kickstarter has seen tens of thousands of projects raise over $1B since launching on April 28th, 2009. His work as a designer and entrepreneur is driven by a simple desire – to produce work that connects people to their ambitions and passions in life.
In 2013 Charles was named as one of Forbes Magazine’s Top 12 Most Disruptive Figures in Business and was invited to judge the 2013 National Design Awards, and Architizer’s A+ Awards for Architecture. Charles is an Executive Board member of the Chicago Design Museum.
Andrew Davidson heads up MB Real Estate’s Corporate Services & Tenant Advisory group. For over 30 years, he has built a solid reputation as a corporate tenant representative proficient in strategic planning, GAAP accounting treatment, state and municipal incentives, build-to-suit transactions, and major headquarter relocations. He has worked with distinguished tenants across several industries, including legal, logistics, non-profit, government, and pharmaceutical. Andy is also a founding member of the MB Real Estate Healthcare Group.
Andy has led the teams that have completed two major build-to-suits for clients relocating their North American headquarters. He worked with Japanese pharmaceutical giant Astellas on securing an 8-acre parcel for its new 440,000 square foot headquarters in Glenview, Illinois, as well as General Board of Pension and Health Benefits of The United Methodist Church on the purchase of its 25-acre campus, also in Glenview, for its new 110,000 square foot corporate headquarters.
Maria Demopoulos, is the founder of Athe Advisors where she leads engagements with foundations, family offices, and nonprofit partners. Her work is rooted in international development and focused on building organizational capacity and data literacy in low infrastructure settings. Maria has led projects and teams across the health, education, human services, environment and clean energy sectors. She has in-country experience in Cambodia, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Germany, Malawi, and Sweden. Prior to founding Athe, Maria was responsible for building the evaluation and strategic learning framework at Crown Family Philanthropies, and she worked on the Democracy and Environment portfolios at the Joyce Foundation. Maria is a co-founder of the Chicagoland Evaluation Community of Practice, a peer-network of 31 foundations working to increase capacity for impact measurement at Chicagoland foundations, and an advisor to GlassCeiling, where she focuses on gender, diversity and inclusion efforts. Maria is a runner and hiker (plagued by a poor sense of direction). She likes to tinker, travel, make mischief, and read.
Rebecca Fons is Director of Programming at the Gene Siskel Film Center, a public program of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and serves as the Development and Programming Director for the historic Iowa Theater in her hometown of Winterset, IA. Rebecca previously served as Programming Director for FilmScene in Iowa City, IA; Director of Film at the John and Nancy Hughes Theater in Lake Forest, IL; and as Education Director for The Chicago International Film Festival for nearly a decade. Rebecca received her MA from Columbia College Chicago and BA from the University of Iowa. She is co-founder of the Chicago event series Destroy Your Art, and has proudly served on screening committees and juries for festivals across the country, including True/False, SXSW, the Seattle International Film Festival, and the Hawaii International Film Festival.
Eric Gannon is an architect and has worked with Gensler for the last 10 years as a Project Manager and Studio Director. A New York transplant, he has quickly become immersed within the Chicago design scene and leads a studio in Gensler's Chicago office focusing on corporate interiors and campus work. Eric's career has taken him globally around the world with project work in North America, China and Brazil to name a few.
Eric supports and enables and participated in design at all scales from large commercial projects to fledgling side collaborations with friends. He fuels his creative passions through music, maintaining an extensive vinyl collection housed within his own custom furniture and playing in as many bands as time affords.
Eric holds a masters degree from New Jersey Institute of Technology and a BS Arch from The Catholic University of America. He is a registered architect in NY and NJ.
Jordan Ho, is a product focused entrepreneur who has founded and led multiple startups. With a broad set of abilities ranging from team management to product vision & delivery, Jordan has spent his career starting companies so that he could avoid ever actually having a real job. He is currently VP of Product at Label Insight, a data company focused on the transparency of information in the food industry, where he is responsible for vision, product design, and customer experience.
His perspective on the intersection of technology & art is influenced by his art background and time spent as an apprentice to renowned artist Ed Paschke. He has now spent the majority of his life in Chicago, but cannot shake his loyalty to those unfortunate Minnesota sports teams.
Hailing from Chicago’s south suburbs, Jacob Karmel finished his Bachelor’s degree at the University of Wisconsin-- Madison, before moving back to the Chicagoland area. He is a Vice President and the Midwest Multiemployer Market Leader at Segal Consulting. Outside the office Jake enjoys cooking and honing his photography skills.
Rob McKay is an owner/curator at Connect Gallery in Hyde Park, Chicago, providing a social space and gallery for well-established and burgeoning artists. He is the Festival Director for “The Silver Room Sound System Block Party” and founder of THĒARĒ Group, an organization where artists and entrepreneurial-minded share ideas and resources. A music industry veteran with over 30 years in the business, Rob has gained many skillsets that garner the trust and confidence of local, national, and international artists as consulting clients.
Rob has led many successful community projects and events, including the annual Silver Room Sound System Block Party. With attendees reaching over 40,000, this event generated an economic impact of 3.6 million for the southside of Chicago. "Move Your Body," an exhibition that chronicled the history of Chicago House Music was held at The Chicago Cultural Center, it garnered well over 95,000 attendees. Rob also curated the well-received public art installation "Activate”, with the Chicago Loop Alliance. Along with friend and business partner Eric Williams, Rob produces the Connect Art Fair held in Hyde Park and South Shore, Chicago.
Rob believes that Art changes the world and aims to increase collaboration between community members, agencies, and other stakeholders to express and solve issues using creativity as the catalyst for social innovation.
Christina Shaver, a Chicago native, writes and produces comedies and dramas for a variety of platforms. Previous to her film career, she worked twenty years in executive management in the non-profit and tech sectors. Christina graduated from Northwestern University with Honors, and also from the Harold Ramis Film School at The Second City.