Meet Our Team
Jeanine Valrie Logan
Dreamer. Grower. Culture Bearer.
Founder + Lead Steward
Jeanine (she/her/goddess) is a Certified Nurse Midwife, certified lactation specialist, and has a strong background in public health and reproductive health policy. She is a birth justice activist and often speaks publicly on breastfeeding, birth justice, doulas, and midwifery in the Black community. She is the co-editor of the book Free to Breastfeed: Voices of Black Mothers.
Jeanine works collectively with birth workers of color and allies to address birth inequity--including most recently on the writing and passing of HB738 which expands birth centers in the state of Illinois. She is currently working on the development of Chicago South Side Birth Center, a nonprofit, midwife-led, culturally congruent, community focused birth center to be located on Chicago’s south side. She received a Bachelor of Arts from Fisk University and a Master in Science in Nursing from DePaul University. She also received a Master of Public Health with a concentration in Global Reproductive Health from the George Washington University. Jeanine completed the nurse midwifery program at Frontier Nursing University in the fall of 2018.
Jeanine is a wife and mama of three awesome Empresses, all of which were born out of the hospital-2 at home and 1 at a birth center. Jeanine spends her extra time with family, building bonfires, creating art, making herbal medicines, reading, gardening, and swooning under her favorite cedar tree.
Lesley Kennedy
Liberated. Free Thinker. mother.
Director of STRATEGY & OrgaNIZATIONal Development
Lesley Kennedy (she/her) has dedicated her 20+year career to helping strengthen Chicago’s non-profit sector. Lesley owns and operates a thriving consulting practice primarily focused on organization development, culture improvement, and leadership coaching. Prior to consulting full-time, Lesley most recently served as Chief Equity Officer for Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana and was previously Director of Strategy and Organization Development at Cabrini Green Legal Aid (CGLA), supporting the organization’s internal culture and strategic direction. Lesley served as Youth & Opportunity United’s Chief Program Officer, leading the development of Y.O.U. 's long-term program strategy and oversaw the daily impact of more than 50 staff members across 11 program sites.
Lesley brings an extraordinary breadth and depth of experience to the sector. She joined Y.O.U. following five years as a Senior Program Officer at the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, where she pioneered and managed the Foundation’s Child and Youth Education and Health and Wellness Portfolios. Prior to McCormick, Lesley served for seven years as the Executive Director of the Chicago Girls’ Coalition, a Chicago-based non-profit that provided capacity building and technical assistance to girl-serving organizations and programs. Lesley led McCormick Foundation’s integration of a racial equity lens to their giving as well as pioneered racial equity all-staff training at Y.O.U. and CGLA. In 2018, Lesley contributed as an Advisory Committee member to Equity in the Center’s report: Awake to Woke to Work: Building a Race Equity Culture.
Lesley has a master’s degree in Social Service Administration from the University of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree in English and Women’s Studies from Stephens College. Lesley has guest lectured on inclusive leadership at University of Chicago’s Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice and Loyola University’s Quinlan School of Business. Lesley's commitment to birth equity is demonstrated over the past ten years as an advisory board member for PCC Community Health Center, board member for Chicago South side Birth Center, certified lactation counselor, birth educator, and student midwife. She happily lives on the south side of Chicago with her husband and three young people.
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Your Support Matters
Donor contributions help us to develop our beautiful future home and the services we will provide. Chicago South Side Birth Center is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and all donations are tax deductible. Our tax ID# is 87-1221956.
We thank you for your support!