MEET OUR TEAM

Tovah McCord

Executive Director

  • In February of 2021, McCord was named Executive Director of Northern Illinois Community Initiatives, and brings 15 years of experience in the nonprofit sector. In this role, McCord oversees all of NICI’s strategic planning, operations and grantmaking.

    Most recently, McCord was Foundation Director for the Chicago Blackhawks. During her tenure, McCord served as the public face of the foundation and raised awareness of its engagement in the community, especially with diverse audiences. Additionally, McCord led a brand renovation of the Chicago Blackhawks Foundation, led the development of a new arm of the foundation by creating a direct service pillar, launched six individually branded programs, and pioneered innovative fundraising campaigns including events with NHL players and top chefs in Chicago.

Elizia Artis

Events and Communications Manager

  • Artis supports our Impact Grant program efforts and communication. This includes supporting the grant process, capturing grantee stories for NICI social media and blogs, and coordinating convenings. Artis is a nonprofit professional with over 8 years in program and volunteer management. She's spent the past 5 years providing unique community engagement experiences through digital communication projects and a variety of events.

MEET THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Wendell Dallas

Board Chair

  • Wendell Dallas serves as president and CEO of Nicor Gas, one of America’s leading natural gas distributors and the largest distribution company of Southern Company Gas with 2.2 million customers in over 650 Illinois communities. Prior to leading Nicor Gas, Wendell served as vice president of sales and marketing for Georgia Power Company where he was responsible for their topline revenue growth strategy, new product development, product distribution, e-commerce, electric transportation, sales management and energy efficiency.

    Wendell brings with him deep institutional knowledge gained from more than 30 years of leadership, operations and engineering experience in the natural gas industry. Prior to joining Georgia Power, he served as vice president of operations for two Southern Company Gas subsidiaries, Atlanta Gas Light and Chattanooga Gas. In these multistate leadership roles, he was responsible for ensuring the company’s operational excellence in delivering clean, safe, reliable and affordable natural gas to more than 700,000 customers in five Georgia and Tennessee regions. He also served as the vice president of economic and community development for the Southern Company Gas multistate footprint.

    A native of Opelika, Alabama, Dallas holds a degree in mechanical engineering from Auburn University and is a graduate of Leadership Georgia, Leadership Atlanta and Leadership Savannah. He and his wife have three grown children.

Meena Beyers

Vice Chair

  • Beyers is vice president of Business and Community Development at Nicor Gas. In this role, she will lead strategies to strengthen our customer engagement and drive our community and economic impact. She will oversee Community Affairs, Customer Development and Energy Efficiency, including strategic leadership of corporate giving, community engagement, workforce development, large customer services and market transformation.

James M. Gorenz

Treasurer

  • Gorenz is director of finance for Nicor Gas. In this role, he is responsible for the development of the company’s financial plan and assuring its financial objectives are met. Gorenz maintains a broad knowledge of accounting, financial and business principles essential in the performance of his role.

Serena Levy

Secretary

  • Serena Levy serves as vice president of Corporate Responsibility for Southern Company Gas and Executive Director of the Southern Company Gas Charitable Foundation. Serena joined the company in May 2022 in this newly created role to lead the company’s strategic approach to community engagement, stakeholder relationship management and charitable giving

    Prior to joining Southern Company Gas, Serena had a 15-year career at The Coca-Cola Company, holding leadership roles in stakeholder engagement, public relations, environmental affairs, public policy, and corporate and financial communications. Notably, Serena led the company’s ESG engagement with socially responsible investors and activists, including spearheading the company’s live-streamed global ESG investor engagements in the US and Europe.

    Serena started her career at General Electric where she was a graduate of the company’s Communications Leadership Development Program. She held roles of increasing responsibility in communications, public relations and marketing across GE’s energy, plastics, and aviation business units.

    Outside of the office, Serena is a fitness enthusiast, enjoys the arts, and is active in the community. She serves on the boards of Children’s Museum of Atlanta, Foundation for Hospital Art, 48in48 and Civil Rights Tour of Atlanta.

    She earned a bachelor’s degree in communication from the University of Cincinnati. She is also a graduate of the Duke University Fuqua School of Business Management Program and completed the Leadership Excellence Program from Harvard Business School. Serena lives with her husband and three children in Atlanta, Georgia.

Michael Guerra

Board Member

  • Michael Guerra serves as vice president of External Affairs for Nicor Gas. In this role, he leads Nicor Gas’ External Affairs efforts and is responsible for regulatory and governmental affairs strategies. Mike leads a team that interfaces with Illinois elected officials, while also managing rate proceedings and other complex litigation before the Illinois Commerce Commission.

    Prior to joining Nicor Gas in late 2022, Mike worked on strategic and regulatory initiatives for Nicor Gas as partner at Chicago-based firm Jenner & Block. Previously, he held multiple leadership positions at Commonwealth Edison in Chicago, including vice president roles in Regulatory and External Affairs. Prior to that, he worked as an administrative law judge with the Illinois Commerce Commission.

    Mike earned a bachelor’s degree from Loyola University of Chicago and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law. A lifelong Chicago resident, he resides there with his wife, with whom he shares three grown children.