Jeffrey Beckham

Chief Executive Officer

Chicago Scholar

Jeffery Beckham Jr. is Chief Executive Officer at Chicago Scholar and an award-winning acrylic painter. In his role as CEO, Jeffery is responsible for leading the organization that serves more than 5,000 first-generation and low-income students to reach their dreams to pursue a college education. 

Jeffery is a community leader, artist, and serial entrepreneur who uses his national platform to fight for equity in education for urban communities. Art, writing, and speaking are his tools to create opportunities for the communities he serves. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for The 100 Black Men of Chicago, The Arose Foundation, and Building Better Futures. He is also a sought-after speaker with appearances at SXSW, McKinsey & Co., Facebook, Groupon, BMO Harris Bank, Chamberlin Group among others and has been featured as an expert source on Fox-32, ABC, CBS, WBEZ’s Chicago Tonight and Chicago.Now, among others.

In 2023 he launched a mobile app Reach Pathways. It’s the world first careers pathways application in Web3. He won the 2023 Future of Work Pitch Competition at SXSW and the mobile app was named one of Fast Companies “Most Innovative Ideas.” His artwork has been featured on film and television and he currently has a studio in Chicago and Atlanta.

Jeffery’s thoughtful and dedicated leadership has received numerous awards. WVON and Ariel Investments named Jeffery one of Chicago’s Top 40 Game Changers Under 40 years old in 2015, he was a finalist for the Chicago Inno 50 on Fire Award in 2016, and The RAY Awards named him their 2018-2019 Man of the Year, in 2021 he was named a Chicago Defender Man of Excellence, and in 2021 he was Awarded the Callahan Celebration of Giving Service award for his work in the community. In 2022 he was selected as a Black Creativity Innovator by the Museum of Science and Industry. He’s an alum of New Leaders Council (2016), The Impact Leadership Development Program (2018) and Leadership Greater Chicago (2023).

Kalia Coleman

Partner

Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila LLP

Kalia Coleman is partner at Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila LLP, where she focuses her practice on white collar and corporate investigations, commercial dispute litigation, and appellate practice. 

An accomplished trial lawyer who has litigated at the local, state, federal, and appellate levels, Kalia has the skills to successfully defend her clients in court, when necessary, and the sophistication to achieve positive resolutions for them outside the courtroom whenever possible. Clients turn to Kalia for her analytic prowess, especially the ability to see potential opportunities and weaknesses from all sides of an issue, and her unparalleled insights into the workings of government enforcement actions around complex state and federal statutes.

During her six-year tenure as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, most recently as Deputy Chief of the General Crimes Division, Kalia led trial teams through multiple federal jury trials, briefed and argued multiple appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, led and supervised other Assistant U.S. Attorneys in handling high stakes criminal investigations and prosecutions involving a broad range of issues, including public corruption, extortion, mortgage fraud, mail, wire and bank fraud, aggravated identity theft, money laundering, and Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act violations.

Before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Kalia was an Assistant State’s Attorney for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office where she litigated over 100 bench trials and numerous jury trials. 

She has received many honors and recognitions for her work, including being named to the Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America list in 2023, Law Bulletin Media’s list of 40 Illinois Attorneys Under Forty, named an Illinois Emerging Lawyer in Commercial Litigation and Criminal Defense Law: White Collar by Law Bulletin Media’s Leading Lawyers in 2022, and to the Top 100 African American Attorneys in Illinois list in 2022 by The National Black Lawyers.