Cheryl Hughes
Ms. Hughes is the Founder and CEO of Cheryl Hughes Consulting. She is passionate about designing and leading programs that foster and measure engagement and inspire collaborative partnerships that advance organizational strategies.
As an executive leader in nonprofit and government organizations, she has created visionary programs and initiatives that have been adopted as national and global best practices. Through her professional service and consulting practice, Ms. Hughes creates civic initiatives for organizations ready to turn ambitious ideas into best-in-class programs with meaningful, lasting community impact. She solves seemingly intractable problems for her clients with tenacity, flexibility, an open mind, and a tireless commitment to breathing life into ideas that forge alliances and find commonalities between us all.
Ms. Hughes has crafted and run innovative, effective programming for clients and organizations including U.S. Holocaust Museum, The Aspen Institute, Bridge Alliance, Chicago Cares, The Chicago Community Trust, the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry, a Chicago family foundation, and After School Matters.
Ms. Hughes graduated from Ohio State University with a B.S. in education. She earned her master’s degree in social science from the University of Chicago, where she was awarded the Earl S. & Esther Johnson Prize for having written the best thesis with policy implications. Ms. Hughes was a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design with a focus on strategies to support social change through an understanding of the built and natural environment.