About

Nancy Valentin is a creative, equity focused leader who started her career at the Northwest Center (legal name Northwest Side Housing Center) in December 2013. After a few years, she left for a brief period of time to work in healthcare and returned to the Northwest Center with a new set of skills in August of 2021. A native Chicagoan, Nancy is a graduate of North Park University with a BA in Communication Studies. She specializes in strategic planning and implementation of start up projects that are both centered and led by community residents.

Since joining Northwest Center, Nancy has piloted two large projects at Northwest Center. She founded Women Forward Chicago, a Latina-centered financial education program designed to create a safe space for setting goals and building financial confidence. The pilot proved successful and has since had over 194 graduates. Today, Nancy is a proud co-leader with the City of Chicago's Department of Public Health for the Healthy Chicago Equity Zones, an initiative part of Healthy Chicago 2025 - the City’s community health improvement plan that outlines strategies to close this racial life expectancy gap. Thorough the regional health equity zones work she, leads a network of agencies that represent over 50 organizations in the northwest side and most recently helped create Belmont Cragin's first community *led* health needs assessment.

When not at Northwest Center, Nancy is an audio producer student who recently debuted her work on Vocalo 91.1 FM and enjoys many hobbies which include painting, photography, traveling, and writing.