No minorities: New Rockford Chamber board completely lacking racial diversity

Jeff Kolkey, Rockford Register Star
·3 min read
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Members of the Greater Rockford Chamber of Commerce board of directors will meet for the first time Thursday to usher in a new era for the region's leading non-profit business development and attraction agencies, but it may feel like a step back.

Members of the new 15-member board were carefully selected from a pool of existing board members for the Rockford Area Economic Development Council, Greater Rockford Growth Partnership and Rockford Chamber of Commerce — the three organizations that merged to form the Greater Rockford Chamber.

The end result is an all-white board of directors completely lacking minority representation.

More: Wanted: Business czar to lead new Greater Rockford Chamber

The lack of diversity and inclusion was immediately recognized as a problem, said Terry Voskuil, president of aerospace for Woodward and member of the Greater Rockford Chamber board of directors.

"That pool dictated it, and then we have no control over people who, for whatever reason, whether its the time commitment or whatever the reason, chose not to want to serve on the merged board," Voskuil said. "Going forward (improving diversity) is certainly a priority. There is no doubt."

The leaders of the new Greater Rockford Chamber of Commerce are:

Chamber nominees: Travis Andersen of UW Health; Lesly Couper of workplace; Jean Crosby of Berkshire Hathaway Crosby Starck Real Estate; Troy Haggestad of Williams McCarthy; and Carly LaMonica of LaMonica Beverages.

RAEDC nominees: Wendy Alsteen of the Hard Rock Casino Rockford; Conor Brown of the NorthWest Illinois Alliance of Realtors; Eric Cunningham of Collins Aerospace; Tom Green of Barrick, Switzer, Long, Balsley & Van Evera; and Mick Gronewald of Fehr Graham.

GRGP nominees: Paula Carynski of OSF Healthcare; Jeff Hultman of Illinois Bank & Trust; Dietmar Goellner of Advanced Machine & Engineering Co.; Terry Voskuil of Woodward; and Frank Wehrstein of Dickerson & Nieman Realtors.

Outreach, hard work

Filling as many as five ex-officio board seats could be one place where the new Chamber board could seek to include minority residents, Voskuil said. The board can also look to fill vacant board seats with minority residents as terms (which will be randomly assigned to end after one, two or three years) expire.

When the list of 15 new board members were revealed at a recent Chamber event, the startling lack of racial diversity sent murmurs rumbling through the room, said Rockford Mayor Tom McNamara.

Diversity is needed to make sure people with different points of view, life experiences and needs have a voice, McNamara said, and it requires outreach and hard work.

"We have more work to do, but a big priority for the city has been to make sure our boards have two components," McNamara said. "One, highly qualified candidates who are eager and energized to serve and use their expertise to improve the community. And, two, to make sure our boards reflect the diversity of our city."

'Chamber not inclusive'

A Rockford Regional Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, a Rockford Black Chamber of Commerce and a Greater Rockford Arab Chamber of Commerce all have been created over the last few years in an effort to better serve the minority business owners.

Shelia Brown for decades has operated the House of Grace Daycare. She helped form the Rockford Black Chamber of Commerce in 2021 when she and other minority business owners felt the Rockford Chamber of Commerce was not as inclusive as they needed.

"What I was hearing was that there was not enough support given regarding the African-American community, resources to develop their business," said Brown, a pastor at Kingdom Authority Church. "Myself being a Black business owner, I didn't see enough resources and support to help businesses grow for our community. That's why I stepped into that arena."

Jeff Kolkey can be reached at (815) 987-1374, via email at jkolkey@rrstar.com and on Twitter @jeffkolkey.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: New all-white Rockford chamber board could look add minorities