For Release
Gov. Pritzker Announces Two Appointments to Boards and Commissions
Building on a strong team of diverse experts in their fields, Governor JB Pritzker announced the following appointments in his administration
Illinois Forensic Science Commission
Shenonda Tisdale will serve as a Member of the Illinois Forensic Science Commission.* Tisdale currently serves as an Assistant Public Defender in the Will County Public Defender’s Office and brings over twenty years of legal experience to the Commission. In this role, she represents clients charged with felony offenses in all stages of the proceedings from arraignment and pre-trial motions through trial and sentencing. Tisdale gives back in her community by being a Big Brothers Big Sisters Mentee. She is also a member of the Will County Women’s Bar Association, the Black Bar Association of Will County, and the Illinois Public Defender Association. Tisdale received a Bachelor of Science from Illinois State University and Juris Doctor from Northern Illinois University College of Law.
Illinois Housing Development Authority
Erika Poethig will serve as a Member of the Illinois Housing Development Authority.* Poethig is the Executive Vice President for Strategy and Planning at the Civic Committee and Commercial Club of Chicago. Previously, Poethig was the Special Assistant to the President for Housing and Urban Policy on the White House Domestic Policy Council. In this capacity, she led interagency policy development on the housing, community, and economic development components of President Biden’s Build Back Better Agenda. Prior to joining the Biden-Harris administration, she served as Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer at the Urban Institute where she created and led the Research to Action Lab. Before joining Urban, Poethig was acting Assistant Secretary for Policy, Development, and Research at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. During her tenure in the Obama administration, she was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and was a leading architect of the White House Council for Strong Cities and Strong Communities. She also previously worked at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation developing grantmaking strategies focused on rental housing policy and research and research on how housing matters. In the 1990s, she was assistant commissioner for policy, resource, and program development at the City of Chicago’s Department of Housing and developed Mayor Richard Daley’s campaign to combat predatory lending, prevent foreclosures, and stabilize communities. Poethig serves on the Harris Council, the Advisory Committee for the J. Ronald Terwilliger Center for Housing Policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, and the Low-Income Investment Fund’s board of directors. She received her Bachelor of Arts from the College of Wooster, where she was a Phi Beta Kappa member, and she was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Vienna. Her Master of Arts with honors is in public policy from the University of Chicago. In 2022, she received a Career Achievement Award from the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago.
* Appointments pending confirmation by the Illinois Senate.
