The Voorhees Center is Happy to Welcome Kevin Jackson as Our Inaugural Practitioner in Residence

Kevin Jackson, Executive Director of the Chicago Rehab Network (CRN), is joining the Voorhees Center as our first Janet L. Smith Practitioner in Residence Online Giving To Voorhees Center! Kevin officially began his residency in August 2022, and he will spend time at the Voorhees Center and CUPPA participating in research, technical assistance, and related programming until August 2023.

A long-time friend of the late UIC Professor and the Voorhees Center Co-director Janet Smith, Kevin has led CRN since 1996. CRN is a citywide coalition of neighborhood and community-based development corporations dedicated to creating, preserving, and advocating for affordable housing in Chicago and beyond. Kevin has contributed to the development of five of the City of Chicago’s five-year affordable housing plans, the passage of the Affordable Requirements Ordinance (ARO), the Housing Illinois public education initiative, the Valuing Affordability Campaign, the Campaign for Housing Justice, and more. Kevin is an award-winning community leader with involvement in initiatives ranging from school reform organization, leadership training and community development including the US Peace Corps. “Kevin comes with a tremendous wealth of knowledge, experience and connections in the affordable housing and community development arena. We look forward to partnering with him and leverage his experience and connections to enhance the work of the Voorhees Center.”

“I am honored for being selected as a resident practitioner at CUPPA – one of the premier urban planning and policy programs in the country. CUPPA is a different venue from my work environment and will offer some new angles, perspectives, and relationships. I am really looking forward to interacting with students again,” says Kevin. He notes CRN’s deep roots in collaborating with CUPPA and the Voorhees Center, from the 1981 Development without Displacement policy statement to housing studies and fact books made in collaboration with the Voorhees Center. “It is quite a legacy, and now we need to look to the future for what is needed in the next generation for place building that is inclusive.”

The Janet L. Smith Practitioner in Residence brings professionals who work or have worked in non-profits, academia, and government in the areas of community development and housing policy. In addition to helping with the Voorhees Center’s programming, practitioners interact with students as professional mentors, guest speakers and instructors for courses taught in the Urban Planning and Policy Department.