About

The Honorable Karen Freeman-Wilson began serving as President and CEO of the Chicago Urban League in January 2020. She brings a passion for equity and social justice to the organization, which works to achieve equity for Black families and communities through social and economic empowerment.

Having served in the public arena most of her professional life, Freeman-Wilson has deep experience in addressing issues that impact urban communities. She was mayor of her hometown of Gary, Indiana, from 2012 through 2019. She was the first female to lead the city of Gary and the first African-American female mayor in the state of Indiana. Her mayoral accomplishments included job creation, completion of a $100 million airport runway relocation, and the development of key areas in the city. She also previously served as Indiana Attorney General, Director of the Indiana Civil Rights Commission and presiding judge of the Gary City Court. She also served as CEO of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals and Executive Director of the National Drug Court Institute.

Freeman-Wilson is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School. She is a past President of the National League of Cities and past Chairperson of the Criminal and Social Justice Committee of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. She is a member of Israel C.M.E. Church; Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.; the Links, Inc.; the NAACP; the Urban League of Northwest Indiana and the Indiana Bar.

Freeman-Wilson and her husband Carmen Wilson II have a blended family of four children.

Calmetta Coleman is Chief Operating Officer of the Chicago Urban League. She is responsible for ensuring efficient operations across the organization, overseeing programs, providing strategic leadership for external affairs, and helping to execute the vision of the President and CEO. She previously served as Executive Vice President of External Affairs & Programs.
 
Prior to joining the Chicago Urban League in October 2017, Calmetta served as Director of Communications for Civic Engagement at the University of Chicago, developing and executing communication strategies to increase awareness of the university's impact through civic engagement and serving as a spokeswoman on community and civic issues. 
 
Calmetta was also previously Senior Vice President, Director of Editorial Services and Corporate Media at Ketchum, a global public relations agency. In that role, she provided thought-leadership communication, broad editorial support, strategic media relations counsel and media training for Ketchum clients across a range of industries.  
 
Other previous roles include Vice President, Senior Communications Manager for JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Vice President, Media Relations Manager for Bank One. She began her career as a national business journalist, serving as a staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal from 1995 to 2002.

Angela M. Hamilton is Vice President of Youth and Family Services at the Chicago Urban League. She brings 28 years of experience from grassroots organizations, local and state government, private industry and consulting where she specialized in program development, change management, policy implementation and strategic planning.

In her role as Vice President, Angela is responsible for the overall development and transformational growth through a systems approach to our programs that are specifically designed for Black youth. Servicing youth on the youth spectrum, the programs created deliberately address anti- violence measures and intervention constructs, social/emotional learning and development, STEM exploration, college readiness, trades exploration, career planning as well as life skills. Most recent accomplishments include creating an Environmental Justice Program with the EPA (EmpowerYouthTech); Youth and Police councils in 15 schools (EmpowerYouthACTION); iRegister (ensuring that all youth eligible to vote are registered, EmpowerYouthACTION); and a digital literacy program for the parents of our youth.

Hamilton received her bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Roosevelt University, Master’s in Social Work from Loyola University and is a Licensed Social Worker in the State of Illinois.