Meet Our Executive Director
Martina "Tina" Hone
Martina “Tina” Hone joined CHICAT as Executive Director in February 2025. Previously, she served as the Chief for Economic Equity at the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago, Chief Equity Officer at the YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago, and was Chief for Community Engagement for former Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Tina also ran for Alderman of the 5th Ward on Chicago’s South Side, losing by only a few hundred votes.
A native southside Chicagoan, Tina spent the bulk of her career in Washington, DC, serving in a range of senior positions in the federal policy arena. She returned home in 2016, bringing with her decades of relevant education and workforce policy and program experience including as an early member of the Teach For America movement, Policy Director on the Education and Workforce Committee in the US House of Representatives, and Associate Under Secretary for Economic Affairs at the US Department of Commerce. She was also an elected school board member in Fairfax County, Virginia.
The daughter of an African American mother and Serbian immigrant father, Tina has been fighting for social justice, racial equity, and the fair treatment of immigrants her entire life. She received her BA in Political Science from the University of Chicago, where she graduated on the Dean’s List. She received her JD from the University of California-Berkeley, where she was an Associate Editor on the California Law Review. Tina is married to an award-winning novelist whose creativity inspires her every day. Her creative niche is stand-up comedy, which she regularly performs around the city.
