For Immediate Release
Contact
Tyler Hough
(815) 579-0867
tylerh@chicagocenter.org
CHICAGO, IL–The Chicago Center for Urban Life and Culture today announced that Kevin Hough, FA’99, will become Chair of the Board of Directors effective October 12, 2022. Hough will succeed Zach Lowe, who served as chair since 2016.
“As the Chicago Center’s first board chair who is an alumnus of the program and current board director, Kevin intimately knows what makes the Chicago Center unique and the student experiences transformative,” said Lowe. “I have enjoyed working with Kevin since he joined the Chicago Center Board of Directors in 2020 and I’m confident his election as chair will provide for strong leadership for the Chicago Center in the years ahead.”
Hough, who has no relation to current Executive Director Tyler L. Hough, has expanded his leadership on the board since joining in 2020 and most recently served as Secretary of the Board of Director.
“Kevin is deeply committed to the work of the Chicago Center and its distinctive approach to urban, place-based experiential learning in Chicago,” said Executive Director Tyler Hough. “We are grateful for his continued leadership, and I am eager to work with him in his new role as chair.”
Hough, FA’99, was exposed to the realities of teaching in an urban setting while student teaching at Kenwood Academy High School in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. He graduated from Illinois College with a bachelor’s degree in history/political science and secondary education, and holds a masters of science in public service (MPS) from DePaul University.
“My time at the Center was incredibly formative in my personal and professional growth. The Center’s unique approach in combining urban internships with structured community engagement, in a supportive residential community of fellow cohorts, provides students with the opportunity to be successful in their craft as well as their citizenship. For many of the Center’s students, many who come from small, rural communities, their internship experience is the first opportunity to live in a diverse, urban environment. Through the Center’s curated network of professional and community partners, and it’s integrated residential life program, Center students learn about the histories and the residents of the communities in which they serve, and how to value them. By doing so, they can begin to deconstruct misconceptions and biases about Chicago and its residents,” said Hough. “At this critical point in our society, where we are re-examining everything with a lens of equability, be it race, gender, or economics, the Chicago Center’s mission and programs are more necessary than ever. It’s an incredible honor to have the opportunity to help guide and expand the Chicago Center’s future. As a Chicago Center alumnus, I am truly grateful for Zach Lowe’s selfless and tireless leadership, and I hope we honor his legacy through our future endeavors.”
Encouraged by his experience in Chicago, Hough became a teacher in Chicago Public Schools and called the classroom home for more than a decade before moving on to the Chicago Teachers Union. Now an advocate for teachers’ rights across the city, he is out of the classroom and in the driver's seat, creating change for teachers and students.
About the Chicago Center
For more than 50 years, the Chicago Center for Urban Life and Culture has been leveraging the power of place and people to create transformative experiential learning experiences and internships for college students. We are building a community of critical thinkers devoted to using our talents to build a more just world. By cultivating strategies for thinking and cultural learning through a community-based approach, the Chicago Center prepares our alumni to be lifelong learners and change agents in communities across the globe.