Jay leads Outreach Experts, the firm he founded nearly a decade ago to help companies and organizations create meaningful and sustainable relationships with their stakeholders. He also publishes The Daily Line, a Chicago based digital first news publication focused on public policy and government in the City of Chicago, Cook County and Springfield, IL. Today, he is a creator at the intersection of business, government and technology, helping companies and organizations develop innovative solutions to navigating the challenges posed by a more interested public and interested stakeholders.
Jay is a graduate of Marquette University and the Les Aspin Center for Government Studies. He earned a Masters in Business Administration degree from the University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business which in 2012 awarded Jay, the Recent Alumnus Service Award for his work creating Notre Dame's Conversations on Leadership and Ethics program launching this as a focus of the college’s continuing education programming for its graduates.
As a member of the Board of Directors of the International Association of Public Participation USA and the Deputy Chair of the International Association of Public Participation Federation Board, Jay works globally to advance civic engagement and public participation in emerging democracies and at home.
Locally, he is an active Board Member of the 100 Club of Chicago, an organization which helped his family when his father was killed in the line of duty as a Chicago Police Officer in 1983.
Jay is married to Kelly, herself a social and civic entrepreneur who operates the Green Explorers’ Club, a kid’s fun and learning business focused on sustainability classes and camps that create well informed and responsible young citizens while helping parents take time for work and self. Together, Jay and Kelly are raising Jack & Vivienne in Roscoe Village in a home they share with canines, Samson and Duke.
Steve Thomas
Steve Thomas invests his life in helping a variety of organizations build leadership, develop people and create team. To put it simply, he helps people navigate through the complexities of human weirdness. He genuinely wants to see people live better lives and has a passion to develop people to get the most out of their leadership. It is not secret that great people make great organizations. While some start with tips and techniques to solve the problems that we see, Steve digs below the surface to challenge the deep issues we sometimes don’t see. Convinced that leadership drives the workplace culture and the culture drives everything else, he challenges current thinking and belief systems to bring about change…and fun! In fact, part of his mission…make work culture more fun! Steve also coaches football and lives in Springfield, Illinois with his wife, Debbie. She works in education doing almost the same thing he does, except she is way better at it than he is!