About Us
ELVN’s Board of Directors are pulled from a cross-section of our community. We are residents, business owners, and employees. If you would like to be more active in community life, we encourage you to attend our meetings, and perhaps join our board!
Board member elections are held every year at our March Community meeting. Each member of the board is elected for a two-year term; the terms are staggered, so every year one-half of the posts are up for election.
2022-2023 Executive Board
Michael Zink — President
Michael Zink is an attorney at the Law Offices of Starr, Bejgiert, Zink & Rowells, a general practice civil litigation firm in Chicago. He has held a variety of leadership roles in the Illinois State Bar Association and in the Chicago Bar Association. Michael has also served in various advisory roles in legal and community organizations throughout Chicago. Michael previously served as Secretary of ELVN.
Brian Murphy — Vice-President
Terie Kata — Treasurer
Terie Kata has been active as a board member of ELVN since 1991, serving as Chair for five years, Treasurer for twelve years and past chair of ELVN’s annual Oktoberfest fundraiser for 12 years. She’s been an active resident and property owner of the Lakeview community for 25 years. Other community involvement has included working with several Chamber’s of Commerce, being an active participating member of LVCC for the past 25 years, serving on many committees, as well as planning and coordinating numerous LVCC fundraising events. Terie enjoys traveling the globe.
Heather Way Kitzes — Secretary
2022-23 Board of Directors
Patrick Carlson is a longtime resident of East Lakeview. He is an attorney and actively participates in all ELVN meetings. Patrick has been an ELVN board member since 2015.
Brandon Cunningham is the proud father of two young daughters who provide his motivation for being active in his community. He started, and serves as president of, the Kelly Park Advisory Council and takes an active part in the ELVN Green Team. He works as an airline pilot and in his spare time builds wooden boats in his garage.
Jean O’Neill, a founding member of ELVN, has served on the Board since its inception and remembers struggles with slumlords, gangs, and graffiti. Jean spearheaded efforts to bring a new Greeley School to the neighborhood and supported beautification of Gill Park. Jean has been a resident and property owner in East Lake View since 1971, when the Chicago Bears were playing football at Wrigley Field.
Tom Rothschild has called East Lakeview home for 27 of the 32 years he has lived in Chicago. Currently the Treasurer of his condo association and has been active on the board of every building in which he has lived. His work with the condo board has led him to form relationships with both Alderman Tunney’s and Cappleman’s offices. He has been active in the neighborhood in ELVN and Lakeview Panty. He is currently a free-lance Project Manager.
Marty Wallace has lived in East Lake View since 1976, where he has successfully worked as a broker with Koenig & Strey Realtors. Marty works hard securing donations and selling tickets for ELVN’s annual Oktoberfest. Born and raised in Chicago, Marty also enjoy attending Cub games and walking our beautiful lakefront with his wife, Diane.
Kit Welch and her wife decided to make Lakeview East their permanent home in 2012 after having lived in numerous cities. By profession, Kit is a Real Estate Broker with Baird & Warner, specializing in residential and small commercial real estate sales throughout Chicagoland, but focuses her business primarily on the North side of the City, and the Lakeview/Wrigleyville area. In 2017, Kit and her wife bought their second property within the East Lakeview boundaries, a 2-flat building on the 3700 block of North Kenmore Ave. They have opened an Airbnb in the second floor unit of their new home, and are now landlords for the condo property they used to live in at the corner of Grace and Fremont. Kit has become an active member in the Lakeview East/LGBT community, as a member of the LGBT Chamber of Commerce, and serving on the Boards of The Legacy Project and the Grace Condos Association. Kit is also an avid SCUBA diver and volunteer at The Shedd Aquarium.
Gregory Ratcliff is a University of Missouri alumnus and has an MBA plus over 30 years in corporate and non-profit human resources, including executive level positions at Christie’s Auction House and Gay Men’s Health Crisis in New York City. Following a career change he received an MSW in general mental health in 2017. Today he considers himself to be retired and a non-practicing therapist. Relocating to the Chicago area in 2018, he and his spouse of over 32 years are happy to call East Lakeview home. He volunteers in the community and serves on the board of his co-op building located on Lake Shore Drive. Together with his spouse, they enjoy international travel as well as collecting art and antiques.
Casey Hudetz is a husband, father of two boys and Lakeview resident for nearly a decade. He joined the ELVN board as a way to bring positive change to the community. In 2022 he organized the painting of two murals at Wendt Park and was elected to be a parent representative for the Local School Council at Nettelhorst Elementary School. He works for DocuSign as a product design manager and spends his free time biking the city with his family.
Gregory Ratcliff, Tim Lindsay, and Maureen Martino are also board members.