Lavish Lunch and Love Conference

October 17, 2021, Chicago, IL

Kimberly A. Lightford is the first Black woman to serve as
Illinois’ Senate Majority Leader. She has dedicated her 22-year
legislative career to championing her passion, education and
youth development. As the former Chair of the Senate Education Committee, Lightford passed notable education reform legislation recognized as a national model. This legislation led to the
establishment of stronger methods of evaluating teachers and tracking student progress.

Lightford also started the state’s universal preschool program, established
no bullying zones on school playgrounds and reformed disciplinary practices that were disproportionately affecting at-risk and minority students.
Leader Lightford is also committed to improving the quality of life for working class families. She was the lead sponsor of Illinois’ Equal Pay Act, she fought to reform the Payday Loan industry and is responsible for raising the minimum wage in Illinois three times, including a 2019 measure that gradually increases it to $15 per hour by 2025.

While serving as Joint Chairman (January 2015 to January 2021), she led the effort in crafting the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus’ four-pillar agenda to create a more equitable Illinois by passing significant legislation to dismantle systemic racism in criminal justice reform, violence reduction and police accountability, education and workforce development, economic access, equity and opportunity, and health care and human services.

A life-long resident of her district, Leader Lightford was born in Chicago and raised in Maywood. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Communications from Western Illinois University and a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Illinois at Springfield.

Maudlyne Ihejirika is an award winning, Chicago Sun-Times Urban Affairs Columnist with 30 years experience in Journalism, Public Relations and Government, who currently pens the Sun-Times “Chicago Chronicles,” long-form columns offering diverse narratives and untold stories of inspiring people, places, organizations and issues impacting Black and Brown communities.

She is president of both the National Association of Black Journalists Chicago Chapter and the Chicago Journalists Association, and in 2019 was ranked on a list of “The 25 Most Powerful Women In Chicago Journalism.” Ihejirika is the author of “Escape From Nigeria: A Memoir of Faith, Love and War,” a riveting tale of her family’s survival of the brutal Nigerian-Biafran War and miracles that brought them to the U.S. as refugees in 1969.

She holds an M.S.J. from Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, where she was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2020, and a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Iowa, where she was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2018. She is a member of the prestigious Council of 100 at Northwestern and the Professional Advisory Board of the School of Journalism & Mass Communication at University of Iowa.

In 24 years with the Sun-Times, she has served as assistant city editor and covered beats from crime and the inner city to housing and education, politics and philanthropy. As Weekend City Editor in 1977, she left to work for Gov. Jim Edgar as press secretary for the Illinois Department of Children & Family Services. In 1999, she left state government to launch the Ihejirika Media & Communications Group, managing media operations for members of the U.S. Congress, Illinois Legislature and City Council.

Since returning to the Sun-Times in 2003, her numerous awards include the prestigious Studs Terkel Award, top national and local awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and National Association of Black Journalists, and several civic awards, including the Chicago Defender Woman of Excellence and African Festival of the Arts Community Servant Award.

A highly sought after speaker, including twice serving as a university commencement speaker, she holds an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Saint Xavier University, is a frequent guest contributor on PBS-TV’s “Chicago Tonight: Week In Review,.” and FOX-32’s “Good Day Chicago,” and has appeared as a political analyst on CNN, TV One, ABC, CBS, and NPR; WBEZ, WVON and V103. 

Follow her at @Maudlynei on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Toy Ann McCray aka Blaq Isis is a award winning poet and community activist. spoken word life artist, entertainer, lecturer, promoter, producer, host, published author, and mentor. Her contributions to activism and poetic artistry are instrumental to Chicago and its youth. Her artist/activist movement, P.O.E.T, inspires thousands of ordinary people to use their gifts to do extraordinary work.

She is committed to serving the poor in need, delivering coats, hats and scarfs to the homeless on Chicago’s lower Wacker Dr. and the Door Of Hope Men’s Shelter. Toy developed a sleepover program for young teen girls that would give them an opportunity to share things that they couldn’t share at home. Also, it provides a safe environment for them to have fun on a Friday night.

Toy adopted the IMPACT FAMILY CENTER and personally took it upon herself to help mentor and provide for at risk teens in the Roseland, Englewood and Auburn Gresham communities. Toy volunteers every year, representing her company UPS at the Annual Special Olympics games in the Chicagoland area. Not only does she volunteer, but she brings her organization P.O.E.T with her. Toy developed a sleepover program for young teen girls that would give them an opportunity to share things that they couldn’t share at home. Also, it provides a safe environment for them to have fun on a Friday night.

Crystal Dyer is an Accredited and Certified Travel Advisor (CTA). As founder and CEO of Gone Again Travel & Tours, a groups exclusively agency, with a focus on business incentive groups and family travel. She began her passion by attending Harper College Travel Academy in Palatine Illinois, finishing a certification program for travel agents and meeting planners.

Graduating in September 1999, she initially opened the agency from her home in the Austin Community. After retiring from AT&T Communications in 2004, she worked with Delta Airlines, ONE Travel and GOGO Vacations. Crystal opened the first African American owned brick and mortar agency in the Austin community September 22, 2016.

Ms. Dyer is chair of State Representative La Shawn K. Ford Tourism committee in Springfield, Illinois. In 2015, Ms. Dyer founded Chicago Austin Youth Travel Adventures (CAYTA), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and public charity. CAYTA was founded with the mission to connect disenfranchised African American youth to their heritage through tourism, volunteerism, career development, entrepreneurship, and community relations. 

Judith A. Smith is an immaculate professional and a serial entrepreneur who has served in the corporate arena for well over 30 years. She is an author , teacher, mentor , lifetime learning student who loves learning and who is a true visionary of purpose. She is married to her loving King “Kevin” and a loving mother to her princess “Chevene”. She is the CEO of JAS Enterprise Inc. and founder and CEO of Renewed Inc. a not for profit organization developed to eradicate homelessness and to provide housing counseling with a focus on veterans and the under privileged. She owns and operates a catering company called ” A Flavored Jamaican Inc.” along with her husband and is a private real estate investor who loves to create economic empowerment and growth in the communities she serves. She runs a cleaning company called “Eco Cleaning and Concierge Services Inc.”, along with interest in other organizations.

She has helped to create business development programs and training for many organizations throughout the US. She loves developing businesses and helping others to create wealth while developing the visions for others to change the lives of her fellow man. She is a DePaul University ASK mentor and a very resilient and resourceful person who is now pursuing her Juris Doctorate to manage and handle her businesses and to serve the communities she is led to.