Announcing the permanent appointment of Jody Chong as Executive Director, effective immediately.
By City Bureau
You likely already know Jody. She’s not new to City Bureau—or to the work of building civic infrastructure. She joined the organization in 2022 as Documenters Network Deputy Director, rose to Managing Director and then Chief of Staff, and in July 2025 took up the Executive Director role—first as interim, now permanently. In her time leading the Documenters program, she grew the department from three people to twelve, and developed a program strategy and financial model for long-term sustainability. And she was the primary architect of our national growth strategy—the infrastructure that supports civic participation and people-powered journalism across the country. The national Documenters Network is now active in more than 20 communities across 14 states, bearing the imprint of her strategic vision.
Before City Bureau, Jody spent nearly a decade at Heartland Alliance, one of Chicago’s prominent social justice organizations, where she led operations for a 25-person research, field-building, and policy division. During her tenure, she raised more than $2 million for economic justice work and developed complex, multi-stakeholder initiatives including co-designing Get My Payment Illinois—an initiative helping Illinoisans access their stimulus checks during the pandemic, and a regional field building consortium for children’s savings accounts. Earlier in her career, she directed the Illinois Asset Building Group, a statewide coalition, won multiple state legislative campaigns, and built her advocacy expertise at the Greater Chicago Food Depository, Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, and Community Organizing and Family Issues.
In Jody's own words: “A decade in public policy showed me, up close, how journalism can actually widen the gap between communities and the institutions that serve them. City Bureau was built to close that gap, and to do it in a way that’s genuinely radical—by putting people at the center of how civic information gets made and shared. That’s the mission that brought me here, and I’m honored to build on our four co-founders’ spirit of possibility and lead City Bureau into its next chapter.”
Jody has spent her entire career at the intersection of policy, coalition building, and systems change. She brings all of it to this role, as well as ambition, transparent communication, humility, and authentically collaborative leadership. The result of all of it: a leader who arrived at this role from the inside—and who is poised to carry City Bureau into a bright new chapter.
Our Board Chair Joe Germuska shared these reflections: “When Jody stepped into interim leadership, what followed was a period of clarity, creative ambition, and genuine partnership with staff, funders, and our broader community. She led a rigorous, staff-inclusive strategic planning process that left the Board, staff, and partners inspired. Jody doesn’t just understand our mission—she helped sharpen it into a bold vision for the future. The Board couldn’t be more confident in this decision.”
City Bureau is entering its tenth year with a proven leader, a passionate team, and a bold new strategic plan that reimagines what people-powered journalism can look like at scale—in Chicago and across the country. We’re grateful to everyone who has been part of this journey and excited to share that vision with you soon.