The Illinois Justice Project (ILJP) is a continuation of the Justice and Violence Group at Metropolis Strategies and engages in criminal justice reform efforts that promote policies that will make our communities safer and reduce recidivism among youths and adults.  Established in 2014 as a legacy project of Metropolis Strategies, the non-profit ILJP is a supporting organization of the Chicago Community Trust and an affiliate of The Commercial Club of Chicago. 

The staff of ILJP consists of Ahmadou Dramé, Garien Gatewood, Jenny Green, Korynna Lopez, Christian Snow and Paula Wolff. You can read more about them in the Staff section below.

An advisory board provides counsel to the staff of the Illinois Justice Project. It is led by Esther Franco-Payne, Vice President of Programs for the Public Welfare Foundation.

21 South Clark Street, Suite 4301
Chicago, IL 60603

(312) 332-8157
info@iljp.org

Illinois Justice Project News Summary

STAFF

Program Director

AHMADOU DRAMÉ

Ahmadou “Mo” Dramé serves as the Program Director at the Illinois Justice Project. Previously, he was the Housing and Community Development Policy Manager at MPC. And prior to joining MPC, he served as the Director of Policy, Advocacy and Legislative Affairs at Safer Foundation, one of the nation’s largest organizations helping people with arrest and conviction records reenter society. Mo was instrumental in the passage of the Just Housing Amendment – an ordinance that prevents housing discrimination against millions of people with records in Cook County, Illinois. Prior to working at Safer Foundation, he worked as a Community Organizer on Chicago’s West Side.

Beyond work, Mo enjoys working out, traveling, and reading. A few of his favorite books include “I’ve Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle” and “Finding the Winning Edge” by Bill Walsh. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Political Science and his master’s degree in Public Administration, both from DePaul University.

Mo Chair’s the Board of Chicago United for Equity and he co-chairs the African-American Leadership and Policy Institute.

Director

GARIEN GATEWOOD

Garien Gatewood joined the Illinois Justice Project in April 2019. Previously, he was the Director of Policy Advocacy at the Juvenile Justice Initiative, where his work focused on legislation and policy reform for youth in Illinois. While at the Juvenile Justice Initiative, Gatewood worked on legislation on both local and state levels with a focus on the rights of children, detention reform, eliminating youth homelessness, juvenile expungement, and reentry. 

Prior to JJI, Gatewood worked for the Children’s Law Center where his work focused on systemic change and individual reentry services for youth throughout Ohio and Northern Kentucky. This youth reentry project was the first in the region to provide both reentry and legal services. In 2015, he was one of ten people selected as Youth Justice Leadership Institute Fellow of the National Juvenile Justice Network. During his fellowship, he developed a statewide youth reentry guide for Ohio and partnered with organizations throughout the nation to develop youth reentry programs.

Currently, Gatewood sits on Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center Advisory Board, the National Juvenile Justice Network's Membership Advisory Council, and the Board of Directors for Restore Justice Illinois.

Gatewood earned his law degree from the University of Mississippi. During his time in law school, he clerked with the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Mississippi Innocence Project. Prior to law school, he earned his Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Belhaven College and a B.A. in Political Science from Jackson State University.

Program Coordinator

JENNY GREEN

Jenny Green joined the Illinois Justice Project in 2015 as a program assistant. Green provided administrative assistance to the directors and worked on special projects.

In 2018, Green was promoted to Program Coordinator. In this new role, she continues to support leadership while providing technical and logistical support for multiple projects, meetings, conferences and events. Green is responsible for foundation tracking, budgetary monitoring, event planning, organizational outreach and project management for the organization.

Green brings an extensive knowledge of non-profit administrative support. Prior to her position at ILJP, she served as an executive assistant to the Patient Safety and Quality Department at Alexian Brothers and St. Alexius Medical Center – a non-profit healthcare system in the northwest suburbs. In her role at the hospital, Green supported the Patient Safety and Quality Department’s Vice President, three directors and departments across two campuses. Green served on the Physician Reward and Recognition Team and the Employee Satisfaction Team.

Green graduated from Northern Illinois University with her bachelor’s degree in general studies and communications.

Program Manager

KORYNNA LOPEZ

Korynna Lopez works on a variety of juvenile and criminal justice projects, research assignments and events. After interning with the Illinois Justice Project as a college student, Lopez joined the staff full-time in October 2016 after receiving her bachelor’s degree with a double major in communications and media as well as sociology from DePaul University. She is a fellow of the 2020 cohort of Youth Justice Leadership Institute of the National Juvenile Justice Network.

She served as President of the Youth Advisory Board to the Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission, which is the federally mandated State Advisory Group to the Governor, the General Assembly and the Illinois Department of Human Services. Lopez and other advisory board members provided a youth perspective and voice to the Commission’s effort to improve juvenile justice.

From 2013 to 2015, Lopez participated in the Mikva Challenge program as a Youth Leader Intern assisting the Cook County Juvenile Justice Council. She contributed to reports recommending ways to help youth transition successfully from the juvenile justice system and assisted in the creation of a web-app to help people expunge their records.

PRoGRAM DIRECTOR

CHRISTIAN SNOW

Christian Snow joined ILJP as Program Director in June of 2021.  Snow is a long-time resident of Chicago's west side.  Snow graduated from Grinnell College with a degree in sociology and history, and obtained her J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law.

Snow previously worked as an Associate Attorney at People’s Law Office. Snow's work there focused on assisting with civil rights cases involving police brutality and misconduct. Additionally, Snow was an adult member of Assata's Daughters, a Chicago grassroots abolitionist organization that trained young Black people to organize in line with the Black Radical Tradition by providing them with a political home, political education, organizing training, and revolutionary support. Snow contributed to Assata's Daughters through strategic direction, fundraising, staff management, and program development.

POLICY ADVISOR

PAULA WOLFF

From 2000 until the creation of the Illinois Justice Project in 2014, Paula Wolff was Senior Executive at Chicago Metropolis 2020 and Metropolis Strategies where she led the Justice and Violence Group, the predecessor to the Illinois Justice Project. 

From 1992 to 2000, Wolff served as President of Governors State University. During her tenure at GSU, the budget doubled and enrollment grew by 22 percent to more than 9,000 students on the campus in Chicago’s south suburbs. 

From 1977 to 1991, Wolff served as Director of Policy and Planning for Governor James R. Thompson. She directed development and implementation of policy for all areas of state government, serving with her staff as liaison to 57 state agencies.  She also worked for Governor Richard B. Ogilvie from 1969 to 1971.

In 1990-91, she directed Governor Jim Edgar's Transition Team, as she had participated in Governor James R. Thompson's in 1976-77. In 2014-15, she co-chaired Governor Bruce Rauner’s Public Safety Transition Policy Committee; in 2018-19, she served on the Governor Pritzker/Lt. Governor Stratton Transition Committee as well.  

Wolff has been a college professor and visiting lecturer at several universities.  She lectured at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy from 1991 to 1992 and again between 2000-2012, and she taught a public policy graduate seminar regularly while President at GSU.

Wolff has a bachelor’s degree from Smith College and a master’s and doctorate in political science from the University of Chicago.

Wolff serves on numerous boards including the Johnson Foundation, the Irving Harris Foundation, Ariel Investments, the Metropolitan Planning Council, and emerita on the University of Chicago Medical Center Board and the University of Chicago Board of Trustees. Wolff is Vice President of the Chicago Police Board and the former chair of the City Colleges of Chicago Board and also the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority.

She is married to Wayne W. Whalen, a lawyer, and has five children.