From Insight to Impact

Contessa Houston is a portfolio business owner, strategist, and educator whose work centers on building institutions that develop people, systems, and communities with intention.

Her leadership philosophy is rooted in education. From early learning through higher education, Contessa’s career has been shaped by environments designed to cultivate growth, discipline, and mastery. This foundation informs how she builds and stewards institutions today—creating structures where vision is scaffolded, leadership is formed, and outcomes are sustained.

Contessa holds a Master of Business Administration in Information Systems (MBA-IS) and a Master of Science in Sustainable Entrepreneurship, grounding her work in systems thinking, data-informed decision-making, and long-term value creation. Her academic training informs an approach to leadership that balances innovation with infrastructure, growth with governance, and ambition with sustainability.

In addition to her academic credentials, Contessa is a licensed insurance professional, bringing regulatory, risk, and compliance literacy into leadership and decision-making environments. This expertise shapes her work at the intersection of strategy, protection, and institutional responsibility—particularly in contexts serving families, businesses, and communities.

Karen Salmon is a Chicago-based real estate development and community investment leader with more than 25 years of experience building housing, institutions, and public-private partnerships that strengthen neighborhoods. She is co-owner of Common Brick Development, LLC, where she leads the development of attainable, net-zero, energy-efficient housing rooted in responsible community investment.

Karen’s real estate career spans large-scale planned communities, affordable housing, and mixed-income development. As Chief Operating Officer of Prairie Holdings Corporation, she led marketing, sales, and construction for a 385-unit planned community, reengineering the construction process to elevate quality and shorten delivery times. Earlier, as Senior Project Manager at LR Development (later acquired by The Related Companies), she oversaw feasibility, land acquisition, design, construction, and sales and leasing for 600 units of market-rate, affordable, and mixed-income housing across Chicago and downstate Illinois, securing tax credits, state bonds, and private financing.

Karen pairs this development expertise with a deep commitment to community infrastructure. She recruited and led the multi-disciplinary teams that raised $35 million to design, build, and open a 40,000-square-foot PreK–middle school campus, converted a vacant storefront into a food pantry, and is currently leading a $15 million effort to establish a Peace Campus on the west side of Chicago (West Garfield Park). As a consultant to the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), she recently co-designed and co-led a real estate development course for minority business leaders.

Karen also brings deep fundraising and stakeholder-engagement experience, having raised more than $5 million for Chicago nonprofits during the pandemic and led Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s citywide preschool enrollment initiative. She serves as Board Chair of the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago and holds board and committee roles with Common Pantry, the Carole Robertson Center for Learning, and the Human Rights Watch’s Chicago Committee. Karen holds an MBA from Harvard University and a BA cum laude in English Literature from Yale University, where she focused on architecture history and design.

John serves as the Chief Human Resources Executive for ACH Food Companies, an approximate $1B prominent consumer goods manufacturer of top-selling cooking and baking brands, where he leads the company’s communications, human capital, and business growth strategies.

Born and raised in Detroit, MI, John has enjoyed a 30+ year career with increasing levels of domestic and global responsibility across the consumer goods, technology, medical device, automotive, and manufacturing industries—having worked with CDW, Ford Motor Company, Hill-Rom, and Pepsi organizations throughout his career.

John has been a proud board member of the Carole Robertson Center for Learning for over 7 years, is a 30+ year member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., and actively supports various philanthropic efforts to advance the lives of others. In his downtime, he enjoys exercising, snow skiing, fishing, hunting, boating, and experiencing—not just living—life with family and friends. John has two daughters with his beautiful wife, Nicole, whom he adores.