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Teena Lorie Harris

Teena Lorie Harris

Member, National Forum for Black Public Administrators

Teena Lorie Harris is an award-winning, Chicago-based executive, strategist, and civic leader managing intricate organizations, multibi lion-dolar budgets, and transformative equity initiatives across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. 

Previously, as the Executive Director of Business Enterprise Development and ESG at Chicago Public Schools, she directed economic policies and M/WBE programs within a $10.9 bi lion budget. Teena Lorie’s leadership pedigree includes serving as EVP at HBR Chicago—managing a 35-mi lion-square-foot commercial real estate portfolio, stewarding a large unionized staff, and overseeing $198 mi lion in transactions—as wel as managing a $50 mi lion asset portfolio as interim Executive Director of University of California Berkeley Cooperative Housing. 

A third-generation Chicagoan who defied the odds to rise from public education and public housing to the helm of multibi lion-dolar institutions, she is a testament to the power of resilience and visionary leadership. Today, Teena Lorie translates that hard-won expertise into impact by exceeding aspirational goals with Smal Business Enterprises across the nation. Under her direction, her programs achieved the highest participation in the United States for MBE and WBE organizations, with over $5 bi lion spent year-over-year. She is the founder of JCT, a premier business enterprise, ADA + DEIAB strategy and executive coaching consultancy, and serves on numerous boards across the United States. 

Her trajectory as a lifetime learner is backed by a strong academic foundation: she holds MBAs from both Concordia College and Loyola University, is a Harvard Kennedy School Leadership Felow and Policy and Governance Cohort Felow, she is Chicago United for Equity (CUE) Felow, and is a distinguished alumna of the University of Chicago Harris School’s Center for Effective Government Civic Leadership Academy. She is currently pursuing her Master in Public Policy and Governance at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Teena Lorie is deeply committed to fostering innovative solutions across business enterprise, public policy, procurement, supply chain, and government.

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