E. Hoy McConnell, II
Executive Director

Even before Hoy McConnell became BPI’s third Executive Director in September 1999, he was active on the Board of Directors — as a member since 1981 and president from 1990-96. Previously Hoy led a distinguished career in the advertising agency business. At the Leo Burnett Company, Hoy was Senior Vice President, Account Director. He joined Burnett from D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles Worldwide (DMB&B), where from 1983 until 1995 he served as Managing Director of DMB&B/Chicago, leading the 160-person Chicago office, which steadily grew under his direction. Hoy received a BA magna cum laude from Yale University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
hmcconnell@bpichicago.org

 

Alexander Polikoff
Director, Public Housing Program

Alexander Polikoff has served as lead counsel in the Gautreaux public housing litigation for more than 40 years. Alex joined BPI one year after its founding in 1970 as Executive Director, a position he held for almost 30 years. Prior to holding that position, he was a member of the Chicago law firm Schiff Hardin & Waite. He received his BA, MA in English Language and Literature and JD from the University of Chicago. He is the author of Housing the Poor: The Case for Heroism (1978) and Waiting for Gautreaux, (2006).
apolikoff@bpichicago.org

 

Kate Pomper

Staff Counsel

Kate joined BPI as the tenth Polikoff-Gautreaux Fellow in September 2008, having received dual degrees from the University of Michigan's Law School and the Ford School of Public Policy. While in law school she was Article Editor for the Journal of Law Reform, a Dean’s Public Service Fellow, and co-chaired Michigan's ACLU chapter. She served as a member of the Board of the Ford School’s Women and Gender in Public Policy.  Kate graduated from the University of Virginia in 2001, Phi Beta Kappa, with a B.A. in Economics with High Distinction, where she was also a Jefferson Scholar. In her graduate school summers, Kate interned in Chicago with the Mayor’s Office, the Shriver Center on Poverty Law, and the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago. She also spent three years working in Washington, D.C. for the Urban Institute’s Income and Policy Benefits Center and the National Women’s Law Center.  At BPI, Kate works with BPI’s Public Housing team.

 Kate is the 2008 Polikoff-Gautreaux Fellow.  kpomper@bpichicago.org