Elizabeth Hollander, 47. Commissioner of planning, City of Chicago.
Bachelor`s degree cum laude in political science, Bryn Mawr College. Former executive director of the Metropolitan Housing and Planning Council and associate director of the Task Force on the Future of Illinois.
Married, two children.
Developers and architects are getting to know the kinds of projects Elizabeth Hollander prefers, and now her opinions on land use and her advice on the dispersal of various tax incentives can help influence how the city takes shape.
She may not enjoy as much political clout as some members of Mayor Washington`s inner circle, and she refrains from the iron-fisted methods exercised by some predecessors, but she does have her hands on the
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checkerboard of urban development. Directing a staff of 100, Hollander oversees the billion-dollar downtown renewal project, reviews land use and all major development citywide.
”It`s interesting what happens when you give out clear signals about what`s important to you,” she says. ”This office has consistently signaled that we are interested in the contexts in which buildings are placed, building heights and their relationships to each other, the placement of stores at street level, plaza design. And, by gum, we`re now finding that developers have thought about such things before they come in here to discuss projects.” The planners meet her in a 10th-floor office at City Hall, where a shelf holds colorful hard hats collected from various construction projects launched during Hollander`s 3 1/2-year tenure.
One green hard hat sports a jaunty quill painted with the Chicago Theatre logo. Hollander`s voice was among the loudest raised in the successful effort to preserve the old entertainment palace. ”Some people in my graphics department thought the theater was a feather in my cap.”
Tall and slim, friendly yet cautious, Hollander doesn`t seem particularly imposing. But a few words from her can help change the form of a skyline or the beauty of a neighborhood.
Not long ago, for example, owners of a fine old Michigan Avenue building sought to add a large, glassy rooftop structure. Hollander winced and asked the architect, `Why do you want a glass box on top of this gorgeous building?` The architect replied, `So everybody in our restaurant can look out at the lake.`
”Well, I represent everybody who`s got to look at you!” Hollander snapped. The designer retreated and came back with plans that blended gracefully with the original architecture.
ARDIS KRAINIK Ardis Krainik, 57. General director of the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Bachelor`s degree in speech, Northwestern University, 1951; continued her studies at NU in 1953 and 1954 with graduate work in music.
Unmarried, no children.
”I hear that from everybody,” laughs Ardis Krainik when asked if she is powerful person.
”No,” she demurs. ”There`s only one Power, and that`s above us all. Once you remember that, it is very humbling.”
Krainik has very little to be humble about. In her six years at the Lyric`s helm, her combination of opera sensitivity and shrewd business acumen has propelled the Lyric from the brink of failure into admirable solvency, healthy ticket sales and extended seasons.
For 1987-88, she directs a budget of $17 million and oversees a staff of 55 year-round employees. That number swells to 500 employees for an average performance night during the opera season, which begins in September and runs into February.
Credited with burnishing the Lyric`s international reputation as an opera house with first-rate productions and a willingness to showcase young talent, Krainik is a member of the International Association of Opera Directors and is part of the National Council on the Arts.
Showering praise on her staff-”I have the most wonderful lieutenants in the world”-Krainik nevertheless says, ”By my contract, I`m responsible for everything that happens. I run every aspect of the Lyric Opera.
”People want to come and work here,” she explains about how she assembled the staff. ”They are enthusiastic. . . . We have big meetings where everyone has input. All come in and sit down and talk about it. Then we come to our conclusions and do it.”
Krainik, once an aspiring opera singer, began working at the Lyric in 1954 as a clerk/typist.
”I was willing to do anything,” she recalls. She became secretary to Lyric founder Carol Fox and rose to artistic administrator under the founder. ”I was willing to fill in and willing to learn (and) as we went along, I learned,” she says.
During the last five illness-plagued years of Fox`s life, Krainik virtually ran the company.
”Hard work and perseverance” are her prescription for success.
Leadership is an innate trait, she says. Recalling she was always at the helm of some organization, whether president of her college sorority or the student union board, she says, ”Leadership qualities are part of an individual personality.”
JACKY VAUGHN Jacqueline B. Vaughn, 52. President, Chicago Teachers Union; vice president, Illinois Federation of Teachers and American Federation of Teachers.
Master`s degree in special education and bachelor`s in education from Chicago Teachers College (now Chicago State University).
Married, one son.
She led 28,000 public school teachers (who pay $9.1 million in annual dues) on a strike that lasted a record 19 days, kept 430,000 children out of the classrooms and drove parents to clamor not only for a settlement but for an extensive reform of Chicago`s educational system.
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Vaughn, a former elementary school teacher who has been active in the union since 1957 and a full-time officer since 1968, was elected vice president in 1972. She won the presidency in July of 1984 and again in 1986. All along, she has stressed her desire to be an educational sort of unionist. ”I am a teacher of teachers,” Vaughn says. ”I`m teaching them to stand up for their rights.”
A short woman with a penchant for elegant dresses and flamboyant hats, Vaughn downplays her ability to lead walkouts and instead emphasizes a concern for quality in the classrooms, a better student-teacher ratio, improved equipment, updated texts and several other programs that stretch beyond basic salary issues.
With all that professionalism in mind, Vaughn says she did feel a sense of power during the latter stages of the recent strike.
”We were at a stalemate in our talks with the Board of Education,” she recalls, ”and I said at a press conference that, surely, people out there are not going to allow this to continue. Then parents and students came to the fore, demonstrating and saying, in effect, `a pox on both your houses.` That`s what I had wanted to create-a kind of pressure, no matter who brought the pressure or where the pressure was directed.
”That`s why we have wanted a multiyear contract, so we have time to put new programs in place and get students, teachers and parents excited and involved.”
Therefore, Vaughn defines her strength as the ability to draw upon the strengths of others.
”You can get yourself in a position based on your achievements and then influence the people who have the power to achieve your goals,” she says. ”I network with people in positions of influence who want to invest in the future. And, of course, our motto is: `An investment in today`s youth and their education is an investment in the future.` ” –