Chicago News Weekly Co-Founder, President and Publisher Cheryl Mainor Norman is among eight community leaders selected for the 2026 Leaders for a New Chicago Award, an honor recognizing people helping shape the city through journalism, advocacy, organizing, education and the arts.
The Field Foundation, in partnership with the MacArthur Foundation, announced the 2026 recipients Aug. 11. Each of the eight leaders will receive a $50,000 unrestricted award, while their affiliated nonprofits will receive $25,000 in general operating support.
The award, now in its eighth year, recognizes community-based leaders bringing new voices, creativity and innovation into the institutions and decisions shaping Chicago. This years recipients represent work ranging from housing justice and immigrant rights to disability advocacy, local journalism, arts and neighborhood engagement. The awards are a gift to these leaders, who have given so much to our communities, Field Foundation President Daniel O. Ash said. We want them to invest in themselves, to rest, to dream. Because Chicago needs their brilliance. For Norman, the recognition marks another chapter in a 35-year publishing career centered on the Black Press and expanding the reach of stories serving Chicagos Black communities.
Norman leads Chicago News Weekly and CNW Media and previously made history as the first woman president and publisher of the Chicago Defender. During her tenure there, she helped return the historic publication to profitability, according to the Field Foundations announcement.
This recognition is deeply meaningful because I have spent my career believing the Black Press should do more than document our communities. We have a responsibility to serve them, elevate their voices and make sure their stories are never treated as an afterthought, Norman said. To be recognized alongside seven leaders doing such important work across Chicago is an incredible honor. I am grateful to the Field and MacArthur foundations, and I see this award as an affirmation of the work we are building at Chicago News Weekly and the communities that continue to trust us with their stories. Norman joins a class of leaders whose work reaches communities across Chicago.
Candace Coleman, Community Strategy Specialist, Access Living, is a nationally recognized disability rights advocate, organizer, and person with a disability with more than 15 years of experience advancing disability justice, racial justice, and systems change. In her role at Access Living, she develops advocacy campaigns and empowers disabled leaders to influence public policy.
Infiniti Gant, Organizing Director, Southside Together is a skilled housing organizer who has become a transformative force in Chicago through her work at Southside Together. With a deep commitment to tenant power, she has successfully spearheaded two high-profile tenant union campaigns to support residents facing displacement.
Danae Kovac, Executive Director, HANA Center, is a champion for immigrant rights and civic participation. At HANA Center, a Chicago-area, community-based nonprofit, she leads a team working to meet the critical needs of Korean, Asian American, and multiethnic immigrant communities and build power toward systemic change.
Cheryl Mainor Norman, Founder, President & Publisher of Chicago News Weekly and CNW Media, is a veteran publishing executive, currently at the helm of Chicago News Weekly, whose 35-year career has been dedicated to uplifting the Black community through the Black Press. Her pioneering work includes bringing the iconic Chicago Defender back to profitability as its first woman President/Publisher.
Janell Nelson, Creative Strategist & Director, Englewood Arts Collective, is a Chicago based artist whose work spans public art, curriculum design, event production, and community engagement. She is the Founder of the award-winning graphic design firm JNJ Creative and Co-Founder and Director of the Englewood Arts Collective (EAC).
Xanat Sobrevilla, Co-Founder & Strategic Programs Coordinator, Organized Communities Against Deportations, is an immigrant who was displaced from her home country of Mexico at the age of nine. She is a passionate organizer for immigrant justice, leading campaigns at Organized Communities Against Deportation (OCAD) that support families navigating detention and deportation.
Ivan Vega, Co-Founder & Executive Director, UrbanTheater Company is an influential arts leader, producer, and community builder dedicated to creating sustainable opportunities for
Latiné and BIPOC artists. He has spent more than two decades transforming UrbanTheater Company from a grassroots collective into one of Chicago's most vital cultural institutions.
Adriana Velázquez, Co-Director, Parent Engagement Institute, Southwest Organizing Project, is an accomplished organizer who has dedicated more than a decade advocating for education equity, parent leadership, and immigrant justice. As Co-Director of the Parent Engagement Institute, a partnership between the Southwest Organizing Project and Palenque LSNA she leads the Parent Mentor Program, growing parent leadership infrastructure across Illinois.
The eight recipients were selected following a review of more than 150 nominations by a selection committee made up of community peers.
These eight leaders have earned the recognition of their peers through their unwavering commitment, clear vision, and steady leadership in building a more equitable Chicago, said Jonathan VanderBrug, MacArthur Foundation program officer for Chicago Commitment. He said the unrestricted award is intended not only to recognize their contributions but also to give recipients room to rest, reimagine, and invest in themselves and their continued leadership. Since the Leaders for a New Chicago Award began in 2019, the Field and MacArthur foundations have committed $4.45 million to 81 recipients and their organizations.
This years class reflects a wide view of what civic leadership can look like in Chicago: protecting tenants from displacement, helping immigrant families navigate complicated systems, ensuring disabled residents have a voice in policy, developing parent leaders, building cultural institutions and making sure communities have journalism that tells their stories. For Chicago News Weekly, Mainor's selection places the work of the Black Press within that larger civic landscape and recognizes journalism not simply as coverage of a community, but as one of the institutions helping that community see, understand and speak for itself.