Our Staff

While the Justice Coalition's formal staff is small, its impact is significant. Through the active participation
of our members, we are changing the ways that the city of Chicago approaches housing in the years to come.
Learn more about our staff, steering committee, and founder below.

Rachael Wilson

Senior organizer

Rachael grew up in Oak Park, and studied Urban and Regional Planning at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. While at UIUC, she focused on strategies to combat displacement and promote housing as a human right. After she graduated, she worked in tenant outreach and engagement at the Latin United Community Housing Association (LUCHA.) Rachael is honored to be advocating for Just Cause. Rachael is also a singer and music lover, she especially loves songs from social movements.

Email Rachael

Seven DeAssis-Collins

Mobilizing and base building organizer

Seven is a lifelong Chicagoan who has been organizing around housing since 2018. Prior to this role, they worked in academic and political research. In addition to their organizing work, Seven runs a community center on the South Side and teaches workshops on critical media consumption.

Email Seven

Frank Avellone

founder (retired)

Frank led the formation of the coalition in 2018. He served 40 years as a public interest attorney fighting for workers rights and housing reforms. At the time of his retirement in 2021, he served as the policy director for the Lawyers' Committee for Better Housing, where he joined the staff in 2013.

Steering Committee

Members of the Chicago Housing Justice Coalition steering committee help oversee group operations, approve expenses, and guide the group to help meet its short-, medium-, and long-term goals. 

Diane Limas

Volunteer, Communities United

Antonio Gutierrez

Founder, Autonomous Tenants Union

Chante' Gamby

Housing Coordinator, Cook County Health

Mark Swartz

Executive Director, Lawyers' Committee for Better Housing

In Memory Of Janet Smith

The Chicago Housing Justice Coalition honors the memory of Janet Smith, who helped to co-found the coalition in 2018. In addition to her work with the Justice League, played a critical role in the struggle to preserve public housing in Chicago, taught hundreds of urban changemakers as a professor of urban planning at the University of Illinois-Chicago, advanced critical research as co-director of the Natalie P. Voorhees Center for Community and Neighborhood Change, and fought for her fellow faculty as president of the UIC Faculty Union. This is still a sampling of the impact that Janet had on the city of Chicago: those who knew her remember Janet as a fighter for justice in all aspects of her life, and her legacy lives on in the ongoing work to make Chicago a fairer, more just city. Given her tremendous impact on the work of the Chicago Housing Justice Coalition, we honor her legacy, and vow to continue organizing and fighting for change in her honor.