Jason Kaiser
Executive Director
Jason Kaiser has been the Executive Director at Howard and Evanston Community Center (HACC) since November 2021. Before becoming Executive Director, he was the director of adult support services for five years, which included programs for education, employment, health, and human services. Jason dedicated one year of service as a Literacy Coordinator at HECC through Literacy Volunteers of Illinois/AmeriCorps. He has experience as an English Language Acquisition and Adult Secondary Education Instructor with the City Colleges of Chicago. He has over a decade of experience in higher education administration at Northwestern University. Jason has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin’s School of Education, focusing on Education and Fine Arts. In his spare time, Jason enjoys ceramics, camping, and spending time with his family.
Robert Conlon
Youth Services Supervisor
Robert Conlon has been the Youth Services Supervisor at Howard and Evanston Community Center for over a decade. He has also served as an Adult Education Instructor and the Youth Program Coordinator for five years. Robert is a strong advocate of Youth Voice, which he believes is the active, distinct, and concentrated ways young people represent themselves throughout society. Robert is also a practitioner of Popular Education, a collective effort where Teachers and learners are not two distinct groups; everyone teaches, and everyone learns! Learners make decisions about their learning and how the learning process occurs. Piloting these concepts as a Youth Program Coordinator helped Robert develop the youth department mission of being “a youth-voice and social justice-themed array of programs that use arts and technology as a vehicle for change” Robert has a Bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University and is trained in Restorative Justice, Youth Program Quality Assessment (YPQA), and the Youth Assessment & Screening Instrument (YASI). Robert lives in the Rogers Park community of Chicago.
Misael Gonzalez
Senior Site Operations Manager
Misael has been with Howard and Evanston Community Center for ten years as the Senior Site Operations Manager. He oversees the main campus’s security, maintenance, and facility services. He inspects the facility for safety regulations, manages renovations and updates, negotiates contracts with vendors and service providers, and manages facility supplies and orders to ensure that the center is safe and functional for employees, volunteers, and the community members we serve.
Jim Bell
Program Manager
Jim comes to HECC with over a decade of experience working citywide with Chicago nonprofits in the Austin, Bronzeville, East Garfield Park, Humboldt Park, North Lawndale, and Uptown communities. Earning his master’s degree in Social Work from Loyola University Chicago, Jim has worked as a front-line staff, providing clinical, life skills, and workforce services. Jim has shifted his career focus to the program administration side, taking lessons learned from the front-line and leading teams to meet the needs of populations who are the most vulnerable and hard to reach. Jim originally hails from Syracuse, NY, and is a Navy veteran.
Charles Hardwick
Re-entry and Workforce Services Supervisor
Charles has been a voice for the prison reentry and workforce development community since 2002. After serving 14 years in prison, he completed his liberal arts Associate’s degree and worked as a Placement Specialist and then Case Manager, where he gained a city-wide reputation for offering employment-related services to ex-offenders. Now, as the Supervisor of Howard and Evanston Community Center’s Re-entry and Workforce Services, he continues to engage with the community and build partnerships to change society’s perception of low-income and disenfranchised individuals. Charles regularly collaborates with the Illinois Department of Corrections, Cook County Jail, the City of Chicago Department of Family Support Services, the Chicago-Cook Workforce Partnership, and the Chicago Jobs Council. He served as the Director of the Community Support Advisory Council North for 11 years, building a coalition of stakeholders to support the reentry community on Chicago’s North Side. Currently, he serves on the board of Counseling First and the Civic Leadership Foundation. In his free time, Charles enjoys watching documentaries, traveling, and spending quality time with his friends, four children, eight grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
Moon Parker
Adult Education Supervisor
Moon Parker’s commitment and passion for her community led her to HECC over 15 years ago. She spent the first-decade teaching GED prep. Then she transitioned into the coordinator role to provide continued support for the ESL and GED program students and the adult education team. As an immigrant herself, she empathizes with so many of our students who have had to adapt to a new country, a new language, and a myriad of cultures. She believes that students are teachers and teachers are life-long learners. Moon developed a Peer Leadership Council to identify and train students who served as liaisons and advocates for their language cohorts. This unique team exemplifies her belief in empowering students to become active participants in their own education and voices for their peers and their community. Moon has a master’s degree in Education and a bachelor’s degree in Social Work. Moon’s loves are her husband of 20 years, two sons, food, art, and Motown!
