Sara Ray Stoelinga

Sara Ray Stoelinga is the President & CEO of Easterseals Serving Chicagoland and Rockford, overseeing a $80M organization with 700 employees serving 20,000 families annually. She is also an Adjunct Professor at Loyola University’s Quinlan School of Business, teaching Social Enterprise and nonprofit leadership. Previously, she served as Clinical Professor at the University of Chicago, where she taught Public Policy, Sociology, and Human Development, earning the prestigious Quantrell Award for Teaching (2015) and Don York Faculty Initiative Award (2016).

Education: BA, MA, PhD in Sociology from the University of Chicago.

Leadership roles include Director of the University of Chicago Urban Education Institute (UEI), where she led a $50M organization focused on urban education. She has driven organizational transformations at Easterseals and UEI, emphasizing community engagement and civic leadership. A former University of Chicago track and field athlete, she was inducted into the Athletics Hall of Fame in 2021. She serves on multiple nonprofit boards nationally and locally.