Call Tom at 312-925-6505
Email Tom at Lenz@ConsultHLT.com
View Tom’s LinkedIn Profile
Tom began consulting following 30 years of work in neighborhood development, public policy, and community organizing.
In his work with the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), the nation’s oldest and largest network of broad based community organizations, he worked with religious congregations, unions, and nonprofit organizations to build their internal leadership capacity and shape successful campaigns in health care expansion, education reform, and affordable housing. Tom led the project planning team that created Waukegan to College, a successful college readiness program in Lake County, Illinois. He designed and led a leadership development program for the Illinois Network of Centers for Independent Living (INCIL) and continues to work with the disability community.
As a consultant, he was integrally involved in the creation of the Partnership for Resilience, a cross-sector effort to address childhood trauma, access to primary care and family engagement in Illinois. He has worked with Catholic Relief Services, the City of Evanston, Episcopal Charities and Community Services, Full Circle Communities and the Peoria Opportunities Foundation on a range of strategic planning and community engagement initiatives.
Tom says, “Strengthening civil society institutions to help them achieve their missions is a passion for me. This requires both recovering old skills – particularly listening to constituents and developing leaders – and acquiring new capacities.”
Lenz holds a Masters in Urban Planning and Policy (MUPP) from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies from the University of Notre Dame. He has written for Social Policy, Shelterforce, and the Public Administration Review.
Representative Clients
Civic Engagement/Advocacy
Bread for the World
Invisible Institute
Leadership Evanston
Leadership for Educational Equity
Pastoral Migratoria
Progress Center for Independent Living
Education
Axelson Center
Community Learning Partnership
Consortium for Educational Change
Harvard Education Redesign Lab
Partnership for Resilience
SIU Medicine Department of Population Science and Policy
UIC Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement
Housing and Community Development
Center for Economic Progress
Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives
City of Evanston
Full Circle Communities
Greater Southwest Development Corporation
Housing Opportunity Development Corporation
LISC Chicago
Mercy Housing Lakefront
Peoria Opportunities Foundation
Rogers Park Business Alliance
The Resurrection Project
Religious
Archdiocese of Chicago
Catholic Leadership Institute
Catholic Relief Services
Episcopal Charities and Community Services
St. Simon Episcopal Church
St. Paul Lutheran Church