Alice Cottingham is an independent consultant to community nonprofits, grantmaking foundations, funding collaboratives, and philanthropic service organizations. She opened her practice, Alice Cottingham & Associates LLC, in 2007 and has worked with more than 70 organizations, providing project development and management, strategy development and planning, capacity building, and research and writing.  

Alice previously worked for 15 years in community-based organizations on issues of violence against women, youth development, women’s health, and refugee services. She then worked for 15 years in three granting organizations: Crossroads Fund, Fund for Immigrants and Refugees, and Girl’s Best Friend Foundation. She is a four-time executive director.  

This year, HANA will honor Alice Cottingham’s decades-long leadership in nonprofits, community organizing, and philanthropy, as well as her tireless advocacy for marginalized communities that reflect the very spirit of this award.  

We value Alice not just as a long-time partner and a supporter but also as a trusted advisor and friend. Year after year, she has supported our ongoing services and advocacy through her work with the Illinois Immigration Funder Collaborative. She also guided HANA's board and staff with wisdom during our strategic planning process in 2023, resulting in our current five-year strategic plan.  

Organized Communities Against Deportations (OCAD) is an undocumented-led group that has been organizing against deportations, detention, criminalization, and incarceration of Black, brown, and immigrant communities in Chicago and surrounding areas for over 13 years. Through grassroots organizing, legal and policy work, direct action, and cross-movement building, OCAD aims to defend our communities, challenge the institutions that target and dehumanize us, and build collective power. They fight alongside families and individuals challenging these systems to create an environment for our communities to thrive, work, and organize with happiness and without fear. 

HANA will honor OCAD’s work and leadership that have significantly strengthened and supported our multiethnic immigrant communities. OCAD has played a vital role in protecting immigrant families from detention and deportations while building collective power in immigrant communities across Chicago. OCAD has been a leader in building and supporting Chicagoland rapid response teams, the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant & Refugee Rights Family Support Network (FSN) Hotline, and mutual aid efforts over the past year, creating a model that has been recognized and replicated by other states.

Fardowsa Duhulow Janow has been a dedicated youth leader in HANA’s city-based Arts for Justice program since last summer. Fardowsa uses her remarkable talent in painting to demonstrate her strong commitment to social justice, creativity, and values. As SNAP cuts have affected local families, she led creation of a banner that reads “The seeds you plant will harvest,” in both English and Tagalog, which was donated to the Friendship Center’s food pantry. Most recently, she led youth in designing a poster exploring what safety looks like for young people in a time when many of our communities are under attack. In these ways, Fardowsa uses art as a tool to uplift the communities she cares deeply about. 

Hannah Yang is a proactive leader in HANA’s Suburban Youth Council (SYC), who has taken initiative to combat food stigma in schools and ensure TEAACH Act implementation. Hannah co-designed and circulated SYC’s “What’s on Your Plate” survey and report on immigrant high school students’ experience with food stigma. She has also led her peers to identify demands to local school boards to expand the teaching of Asian American history under the Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History (TEAACH) Act. Her ability to clearly articulate SYC’s organizing goals during meetings and outreach has been critical to the campaign to implement the TEAACH Act. Showing deep commitment to her community, Hannah canvassed in freezing weather to ensure that 100 of her suburban neighbors knew their rights.