Benjamin heads up his own firm - Benjamin Cottrell Designs, which is an innovative, full-service design firm, specializing in Interior Design and Event Production. Benjamin joined the board in 2012 and has served as both our secretary and vice-president, and for the past two years has served as the Chair of Loft Walk. Always the innovator, he took on the photo show in 2017 and over the years has set-up various collaborations with local businesses
Robert Degnan
Rob joined the board of South Loop Neighbors in 2014. He is an alumni of the University of Illinois at Chicago where he earned Bachelor's and Master's Degrees and is now working on a PhD. He is a veteran having served 8 years as a reservist in the U.S. Marine Corps, and has worked for the City of Chicago since 1994, currently for the city's Department of Transportation. He served as secretary this past year and played a dual role of Membership Chair which had him organizing the annual member dinner. He has also been involved in various ways with all of our projects.
Christine Hunt
Christine is an Attorney in private practice - with her own firm - Christine M. Hunt, P.C located in the south loop and is an adjunct professor at The John Marshall Law School. Christine joined the board in December 2014. She served two years as the membership chair and was elected president in 2017. As president, Christine has been overseeing all of the organization's external relations and internal and external communication including chairing the monthly board meetings and quareterly member meetings. She has also been deeply involved with the annual Loft Walk, and organized the Night Out at Sox Park.
Roger Marsh
Roger joined the South Loop Board in December 2016, and has taken on several projects this past year. Those of you who were at the candidate's meeting might remember his impressive presentation on charting the voting patterns of residents in the 4th Ward. He's done similar studies on crime in our area as well. He has been involved with a variety of our projects, especially outreach-related ones such as passing out ice cream and public information the farmer's market, as well as at the Spoke and Bird.
Dennis McClendon
Dennis probably doesn't need much of an introduction, expect for those who are new to South Loop Neighbors, as Dennis is pretty close to being the face of South Loop Neighbors, for his long tenure with the organization and its predecessor - Historic Printer's Row - and has held multiple positions, including President and Vice-President over the years. He is our resident planning and development expert, and hosted our first-ever BB-Q in the park - Grill's Night Out. He is an attorney and the proprietor of Chicago CartoGraphics, a design firm that specializes in maps and information graphics.
Dorothy Miaso
Dorothy joined the board in December 2013 and has served as Treasurer for the past two years. She has spearheaded the annual Night at Jazz Showcase, assisted with most of the organization's activities, and, like all of the board members has been involved in various ways with the Loft Walk. She is the Executive Director of the Literacy Volunteers of Illinois, and a past community member of the Local School Council of Jones College Prep.
James Wales
Jim worked in law enforcement administration for over 30 years and for 20 years has been an adjunct faculty member at McHenry County College. He is the retired Chief of Police for the city of Lake in the Hills, and a very active Rotarian. In retirement, he settled in to the south loop where he has also gone into real estate with Baird and Warner. Jim joined board in December 2016. He has been involved with all of our projects this past year and led the Ice Cream Social and Pub Crawl.
