Distinguished Chicago Region Chapter Service Award

Todd J. Cabanban is the recipient of this year's Distinguished Chicago Region Chapter Service Award for his command of the commercial real estate market in communities across metropolitan Chicago and for expanding the way we view ourselves, our purpose, and our potential through innovative chronicling and promotion of both the International and Chicago Region Chapter’s programming and people.

Todd J. Cabanban, one of the founding Principals of Cabanban, Rubin, & Mayberry Commercial Realty, has demonstrated a sure command of the metropolitan Chicago commercial real estate market over a 34-year career. Over his successful career in Retail Commercial Real Estate Brokerage Mr. Cabanban has built a reputation for doing excellent work and providing value to all his clients such as Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, BP Amoco, Cash America, Panda Express and Starbucks. Todd started his career at Hiffman Shaffer & Associates and later helped to build two significant retail commercial real estate firms, Zifkin Realty & Development and his current firm of 12 years Cabanban, Rubin & Mayberry.

Todd is a long-standing member of the state committee for the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC). Todd is also an active member of Lambda Alpha International’s (LAI) Chicago Region and has served in leadership as a past President of the Chapter as well as a past chair of the communications committee for International. Todd is also a member of the prestigious Realty Club of Chicago where he is currently serving as the current President of the organization.

His civic duties include being appointed by Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle to serve on the Economic Development Advisory Committee (EDAC). Todd graduated with a BA from Indiana University and lives in the city of Chicago with his family.

Robert J. Piper Distinguished Leadership Award

Linda Goodman is the 2024 Robert J. Piper Distinguished Leadership Award winner for providing expert market analyses helping to advance important development projects while sharing her inspirational commitment to the built environment by mentoring and teaching numerous emerging leaders in land economics.

Linda Goodman is President of Goodman Williams Group, where she specializes in analyzing market trends and creating development strategies for public- and private-sector clients. Through numerous real estate cycles, she has analyzed opportunities for residential, retail, office, and industrial projects.

Helping to strengthen retail corridors and downtown business districts has been an important component of Ms. Goodman’s consulting practice. She has assessed commercial development opportunities in Chicago neighborhoods on the north, south, and west sides. In the suburbs, she has teamed up with urban planning firms to develop plans for a variety of transit-served downtowns, including Wilmette, Evanston, Glenview, Barrington, Elmhurst, Naperville, Worth, Cicero, Maywood, and University Park.

Ms. Goodman has contributed to dozens of real estate market analyses for the City of Chicago under the Planning Now program. Her analyses have involved site-specific residential and commercial development proposals as well as plans for corridors and neighborhoods. Goodman Williams Group has completed several commercial and residential market studies of the Loop for the Chicago Loop Alliance. They were also part of the team working for the State of Illinois on the sale of the J.R. Thompson Center and for the CTA on the Red Line Extension Plan.

Prior to co-founding Goodman Williams Group in 1993, Ms. Goodman was a Project Manager in the Corporate Advisory Services Group of Rubloff, then a full-service real estate firm. Ms. Goodman began her career at Real Estate Research Corporation (RERC), a national real estate consulting firm.

Ms. Goodman is a long-time active member of the Chicago Region Chapter of Lambda Alpha International, an honorary land economics society. She was inducted into LAI in 1989 and served on the Board as the Vice President of Programs in 2009 and Membership in 2010. In 2011, she was elected President of the chapter.

2025 Board of Directors

LAI Chicago Region Chapter welcomes the class of 2024, a highly qualified group of individuals. They will be inducted at the New Member Initiation & Awards Banquet on Wednesday, October 9. 

Meet the class of 2024. 

Membership nominations are accepted at any time prior to the deadline. We encourage early submissions.

Deadline: Friday, May 17, 2024

Sponsors & Cosponsors: Click [here] to access the application with instructions. 

The Chicago Region Chapter of Lambda Alpha International continually invites nominations for new members and will annually initiate a class of highly accomplished leaders representing the diverse professional disciplines related to land economics.

The Chicago Region Chapter seeks members who will be active in the organization and willing to contribute to our professional community. We continue to work towards a chapter membership that reflects racial, ethnic, and gender diversity.

LAI Chicago Region Chapter has a Member Support Fund to help with the cost of membership and attending events. If you think your candidate may benefit from this support, please share this link to the application [here.]

Read more about the LAI Chicago Region Chapter Committee Charters here.

Congratulations to the 2024 Chicago Region Chapter Board of Directors
In September, Chicago Region Chapter members elected the 2024 Chapter Board of Directors. The new board takes over in January.

President: Zach Lowe, Tri-Council Development Fund & Development Planning Partners

President Elect: Jewell Walton, Chicago Housing Authority

Secretary: Ranadip Bose, SB Freidman Development Advisors

Treasurer: Diane Gormely-Barnes, HNTB

VP Chautauqua/Salons: Rana Lee, SmithGroup

VP Membership: Angelica Marks, University of Chicago

VP Communications: Justin Pelej, Focus

VP Programs: Matt Dumich, SmithGroup

Director-at-Large: Malek Abdulsamad, Greenstone Partners

Director-at-Large: Kenneth Gilkes, It Takes a Village Development

Director-at-Large: Ed Polich, Draper and Kramer Inc.

Director-at-Large: Cassandra Rice, Perkins & Will

Immediate Past President: Lynsey Sorrell, Bureau Gemmell, LLC

Join us in congratulating our 2023 awardees!

Harry Chaddick Distinguished Public Service Award

Marissa Novara, Vice President of Community Impact

The Chicago Community Trust

As the Vice President of Community Impact for The Chicago Community Trust, Marisa Novara leads the team that oversees the development and implementation of the Trust’s strategic initiatives, its policy agenda, and grant making to reduce the racial and ethnic wealth gap in the Chicago region. She has more than 25 years of experience engaging with communities to create innovative programs that respond to their needs and drive policy change. Most recently, Marisa served as Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Housing. She led the passage of nine bills in four years, conducted the country’s first Racial Equity Impact Assessment on the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program and in 2021 invested a record $1 billion in affordable housing.

Before joining the City, Novara was vice president of the Metropolitan Planning Council, where she designed and managed the Cost of Segregation project, which concluded how decades-old racial and economic segregation patterns cost the Chicago region an estimated $4.4 billion in additional income each year. She also led the subsequent creation of the region’s first comprehensive guide to a more racially equitable future. Before that, Novara directed affordable rental and for-sale housing development for Lawndale Christian Development Corp. in the North Lawndale community, where she lived and worked for more than a decade.

Novara has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan in sociology, master’s degree from the University of Chicago’s Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice, certificate in affordable housing finance, development, and management from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and master’s in urban planning from the Istituto Politecnico di Milano in Milan, Italy.

The Doris B. and Marshall M. Holleb Community Impact Award

Brad White, Senior Program Director

The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation

Brad White is the Senior Program Director at the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, a Chicago-based foundation seeking to improve the built environment, support cultural stewardship in the arts, and strengthen democracy through investigative journalism. He is responsible for overseeing development and implementation of program goals and funding strategies for the Built Environment program.

Brad has over 35 years of experience in community development, affordable housing, and philanthropy.  He previously served as the Associate Director of the Alphawood Foundation. Major projects included overseeing the restoration of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Unity Temple and working with a wide variety of arts, architecture, advocacy, and historic preservation organizations. Prior to his work at Alphawood, Brad spent more than ten years overseeing the development of affordable housing at Related Midwest and Mercy Housing.

Brad was appointed by President Obama to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation in 2011 and served until October 2020.  He led its task force on Historic Preservation and Rightsizing and directed development of a policy statement on community revitalization.  Brad is a board member at Enrich Chicago, a nonprofit focused on racial equity and inclusion in the arts; DOCOMOMO-US; and the Julius Rosenwald-Rosenwald Schools National Historical Park Campaign. He is a member of the Public Policy Committee of ULI Chicago and has served on technical advisory panels concerning the Michigan Boulevard Apartments, Cook County Land Bank, and Accessory Dwelling Units.  Brad is the former Chair of Landmarks Illinois, Preservation Action, Lambda Alpha – Chicago Region Chapter, and Unity Temple Restoration Foundation.

LAI International Member of the Year Award

Richard Wilson, AIA, AICP, City Design Director

Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture

Please help us congratulate our esteemed colleague, Richard Wilson for winning the LAI International Member of the Year Award, an honor presented annually to the member most epitomizing dedication to the work and ethos of the Society.

Richard has been an active and passionate member of the Chicago Region Chapter since 2006. He joined the board in 2018, rising to the presidency in 2020. Richard was the Chapter’s first 2-year term leader. He did an incredible job keeping the Chapter vibrant and financially stable during the toughest years of the pandemic. Chicago Region Chapter member, Jacqueline Loewe, described it beautifully: “Richard put all of us on his back and got us through Covid together.”

Richard’s presidential term was not just about the good health of the Chapter, it was characterized by a genuine attention to our core values of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). He did not shy away from honest discussions about our chapter demographics and our industries’ responsibility to society. He handled tough conversations with his natural and sincere disposition and with great personal integrity.

Richard has also been instrumental in increasing our corporate sponsorship levels, which has allowed us to keep the membership dues and event ticket prices stable despite the rapidly increasing venue costs. He also initiated a new annual event of convening the past presidents at a reception where the current board present their initiatives and seek input. This event is a highlight for many and the camaraderie and continuity it instills is so important for preserving community.

More recently, Richard brought his hard work and great ideas to the LAI International level serving as International Secretary and playing an integral role in the development and execution of the 2023-27 Strategic Plan. Having chaired the Vision, Mission, Principles and Goals Committee, he garnered valuable insights from a wide representation of the honorary society about the opportunities and challenges facing LAI as it steers toward its 100-year anniversary.

Most impressively, Richard has performed all this amazing work for LAI while serving in the Senior Leadership Team at Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill. His impressive career spans 30 years of global design and construction experience throughout the Americas, Asia, Europe, India and the Middle East.