Board of Directors

Susan Leinwohl - President

Susan is one of the founding members of the Edgewater Village Chicago and currently serves as President and Chair of the Program Committee. She brings her knowledge of not-for-profit management, having served over 30 years in various capacities as a Volunteer Services Manager and as an Executive Director. She strongly believes in the value of volunteer service and encourages older adults to become involved with the Village to gain the benefits of giving back, sharing and learning new skills, meeting new friends, and realizing other perspectives. In addition, Susan’s biggest joy is discovering folks of diverse interests whom she would have never met without the community of Edgewater Village.

Ginger Williams - Executive Director

Ginger is a founding member of Edgewater Village Chicago where she focuses her effort on results-oriented programs for older adults. Motivated by helping others, she brings her life experiences as a former registered nurse in psychiatry and geriatrics and directs them to supportive and practical goals. She sets her goals in alignment with the mission statement of Edgewater Village Chicago — to engage and support older adults. As a caseworker for Alderman Harry Osterman in the 48th ward, she shares her values of compassion and understanding with a focus on housing and mental health issues. She has been an active volunteer for various community organizations and in 2019 was named a Living Treasure of Edgewater by the Edgewater Historical Society.

Gerhard Schutte - Vice Chair

Gerhard has taught Anthropology and Sociology at universities in South Africa, Germany and the United States. As a member of Edgewater Village Chicago, he enjoys working with the senior community, sharing their life experiences and wisdom. They provide him with the opportunity to apply his lifelong interest and concern about race and ethnic relations and social inequality to the realities of Edgewater. Gerhard looks forward to fostering greater diversity in the membership of the Village and to make it more representative of the larger geographic area it serves. As Vice Chair of the Board and member of the Program Committee, he intends to pursue these goals.

Tom Murphy - Treasurer

Tom is a longtime member of Edgewater Village Chicago where he is the Treasurer and serves on its Program Committee. He was attracted to the Village by the variety and quality of its programs. He is a retired scientist and has been involved directly and indirectly in bringing science-based program to the Village. He likes the outdoors and has long been involved as a volunteer in the restoration of the Forest Preserves of Cook County. More recently, he joined the Chicago Park District’s Park Advisory Council for the new West Ridge Nature Preserve on Western Avenue where he serves as the site steward. His focus now is working with other EVC members to enhance the appeal of the Village to residents of Chicago’s northside.

Ben Polk

Ben is an active member of Edgewater Village Chicago exploring his interests and meeting new people. He enjoys the diversity of the programs from armchair travel to poetry to science and beyond. Ben brings his writing and editing to the position of co-chair of the Communications Committee to boost publicity. He applies his values of learning and teaching in The Craft of Writing Your Story creative nonfiction writing classes. He has discovered that people write about their lives in order to make sense of them. On a parallel path with his values is his focus on reaching out to people with social media and program events as a member of the Program Committee.

Katy Linehan

Katy Linehan joined the Edgewater Village Chicago (EVC) Board of Directors in January 2020. She is the Adult Services Librarian at the Edgewater Branch of the Chicago Public Library (CPL), a position she has held for three years, with a total of 15 years with CPL. Katy originally became involved with Edgewater Village Chicago through library programming and has enjoyed the variety of consistently high-quality presentations that Edgewater Village Chicago has provided to northside residents. She will continue free or low-cost programming to all ages, but especially older adults, through her involvement with EVC's programming committee.