Board of Directors

Constance L. Mortell

is President of Prairie Tides Productions, LLC, a film production company that recently produced a documentary on the I & M Canal. She received her B.A. from the University of Colorado in 1971 and her M.A. in Urban Planning and Policy from University of Illinois at Chicago in 1988. She has been a Montessori pre-school teacher, commercial photographer in Vail, Colorado and sound engineer/manager for Jackson Sound Productions, Denver, Co. In 1980 Mortell founded a company specializing in residential developments for first time buyers. She organized and directed all aspects of the successful fund raising campaign to save and restore Chicago's second oldest landmark: Holy Family Church. From 1992 to 1996 she was the External Affairs Officer for the Chicago Transit Authority -- responsible for press relations, marketing and special projects like initiating color-coding of all the rail lines, the use of "landmark" icons in multi-language brochures, the painted buses, and the annual anti-graffiti mural contest. She received an American Public Transit Association Grand Award in 1993, a City of Chicago-Kathy Osterman Award for Superior Public Service in 1995, a National Trust for Historic Presentation Award in 1996, and a 2003 CINE Golden Eagle Award for her film, "Prairie Tides." Mortell is also a board member of the Illinois Arts Council and a board member of Friends of the Chicago River.

Note: Ms. Mortell is a Gubernatorial Appointee.

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