VSG's Professional Education and Training Institute

E. Dennis Morrison II has 25+ years of management experience. He is a former managing partner of the Acumen Group LLC. a management and I.T. consulting firm. Dennis has managed companies in multiple industries including social service, medical, and telecommunications. He is the Co-founder of the Family Centered Educational Agency Inc. a Non-profit that currently serves over 600 families in Chicago and the south suburbs, providing educational support, mentoring, and counseling services through over $5 million in federal TRIO grants. Dennis has served as a national trainer, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, where he trained over 200 colleges and universities across the country in grants management, technology, and capacity building. He has written, successully recieved, and managed millions in federal grant dollars while providing consulting services to many national organizations such as, J.P. Morgan Chase Foundation, The John S. & James L. Knight Foundation, Gary Community Health Foundation, Easter Seals, Catholic Charities, The National Parent Teachers Association (NPTA), The National Association of Drug Court Professionals, Diversified Fuel Group (An ExxonMobil Company), as well as local clients like Eastern Illinois University, Columbia University-Chicago, Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the city of Chicago Department of Human Services, and C.E.D.A. to name a few.

Z. Harry Piotrowski, is an expert researcher and Psychometrician with over 25 years' experience in data analysis and research design. Has severed as an independent evaluator on numerous federal, state and private grants for nonprofit organizations and educational institutions. His research experience includes the development of rigorous evaluation designs under the auspice of the Center for Disease Control, Office on Women's Health, Office of Adolescent Health, Office of Minority Health, Family and Youth Service Bureau, Illinois Department of Human Services and many more. He is a published researcher with manuscripts featured in the Journal of Adolescent Health, American Journal of Public Health, Journal of Family Practice, Pediatrics and a host of others. Harry has presented data at national conferences including the American Public Health Association, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Teen Pregnancy Prevention Conference, and the Center for Disease Control STD conference. Harry has extensive education experience and publication history in the areas of public health and clinical research, psychosocial and behavioral research; and, evaluation, including recent position of Independent Evaluator for Community-Based Abstinence Education (CBAE) and Healthy Marriage Demonstration Initiative, Teen Pregnancy Prevention, Juvenile Delinquency and Violence Prevention, HIV/AIDS Prevention, and Abstinence Education (A-H). His experience in directing large scale community-based evaluations and in directing community-based health education grants and health institution physician education grants provides a sound background to direct evaluation and research.

Gina Curry is a 15 year community health advocate, research specialist and activist. She is the Community-Campus Coordinator for Northwestern University's Alliance for Research in Chicagoland Communities (ARCC), as well as the Community Research Specialist for the Master of Public Health Program at Chicago State University. In both roles she serves as the "face" of community engaged research, attending a myriad of community events, serving as speaker, panelist, and lecturer on topics involving Community Based Participatory Research/Community Engaged Research and most recently, Clinical Trials Education. Gina leverages the vast number of relationships she develops to assist in building authentic community-academic partnerships across Chicagoland for research projects, community health programs and advocacy efforts with local government. Gina is also the Founder of Healthy Washington Heights Coalition, a non-profit organization on Chicago's far south side that provides free health awareness and promotion services via a team of 12 Community Health Workers. The Community Health Worker group is comprised of previously at-risk community members (employment and housing insecure) and recent parolees. The Community Health Workers spearhead free community walking clubs, community gardens, and screening and prevention activities for chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer, stroke and sudden cardiac arrest, as well as awareness efforts around urban environmental pollution. Gina also serves as President of Curry Community Consulting, which provides Chicagoland academic research universities with technical assistance on grants for community engaged research and partnership development.

Marta Bailey Hopkins has held a variety of fundraising/development positions since her entry into the profession in 1987. Her most recent position was Director of Development at Community Counseling Centers of Chicago (C4), a non-profit behavioral healthcare organization that serves the mentally ill, where she served for seventeen years. Prior to her work at C4, she served as Regional Director for Just Say No International, where she managed a federal capacity grant. Prior to Just Say No, she was the Director of Development (as well as simultaneously serving as Acting Executive Director for 6 months) for CYCLE, (Community Youth Creative Learning Experience) serving the Cabrini-Green Community. Her entry into the Development profession was at Northeastern Illinois University where she was employed for 8 years, as both Assistant and Associate Directors. Over the years her areas of expertise include, but are not limited to; individual, corporate and foundation giving, grant writing, special event planning, proposal development, project management, budget planning, communications, marketing and public relations. In 2015, Marta retired as a fundraising professional and now enjoys her life as a Yoga Instructor, Health Minister and Raw Food Chef.

Sherida Morrison is the Founder and CEO of Demoiselle 2 Femme, NFP. Demoiselle 2 Femme (D2F), "Young Ladies to Women" is a nonprofit organization with a rich history of providing community-based programs to girls on the far south side of Chicago as well as the south suburbs. The mission of D2F is to provide holistic services, education, instruction and training to assist adolescent females in a successful transition to womanhood. In fulfilling its mission, D2F has provided prevention and education programs to thousands of girls ages 13-19 in the Chicagoland community for 22 years, assisted over 600 girls to become first-generation college graduates and awarded over $52,250 in academic scholarships. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications and a Master of Arts degree in Sociology with an emphasis in Youth Services. Her successful involvement in community organizing and risk prevention services to youth is evident in her task force and advisory board appointments, coalition building activities, and consulting contracts with state and federal agencies as well as universities. Under her leadership, Demoiselle 2 Femme has received and successfully managed over 10 million dollars in state, county and federal grants awarded through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (OMH, FYSB, OWH, AFL), Office of the Assistant Secretary, Cook County, the Illinois Department of Human Services, and the Illinois State Board of Education to implement programs addressing teen pregnancy prevention, HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention, violence and juvenile delinquency prevention, college access, obesity prevention, research partnership building, community capacity building and STEM. In addition, D2F has also successfully managed over $750,000 in private grants from foundations, corporations and universities.