President Genie Kastrup broke the glass ceiling in March 2023 by becoming the first woman President in Local 1’s 100-year history! Genie has made countless contributions to the labor movement and played an instrumental role in framing the union’s political strategy for the last decade. Throughout her 20-plus-year career, Genie has led efforts to increase SEIU Local 1’s membership, create independent political power throughout the Midwest and win for working families both in the workplace and in their communities.  

Before becoming SEIU Local 1’s President, Genie served as the Executive Vice President under President Emeritus Tom Balanoff and was formerly a Local 1 Vice President, Chief of Staff and Political Director. She oversaw the day-to-day operation of Local 1 while spearheading significant change within the organization to build a more powerful, inclusive, and transformational union for members. Genie has helped strategize numerous breakthrough campaigns throughout the Local, assisting non-organized workers in winning power in their workplace and unionized workers in gaining deeper job protections and significant raises.  

She was awarded the 2024 Outstanding Achievement in Workforce and Labor Award by the Office of the Illinois State Treasurer. In June 2022, President Kastrup was elected to the SEIU International Executive Board, the highest-serving body in SEIU, representing 2.1 million working people across the world. 

In addition to her role as President of SEIU Local 1, Genie serves as Vice President of the SEIU Illinois State Council. She is a member of SEIU International’s Division Labor Board within SEIU’s Property Services Division — a group that helps coordinate national strategy and work among the janitorial, security, and airport industries.   

Before joining SEIU Local 1, Genie spent a decade with the SEIU Illinois State Council, the union’s political arm in Illinois, where she led efforts to help elect then-U.S. Senator Barack Obama to the White House. 

Last but not least, in 2026, President Kastrup helped pass historic legislation in Illinois giving more than 100,000 rideshare drivers across the state the right to form a union and collectively bargain. 

Martin Cabrera is the Founder and CEO of Cabrera Capital, a global investment bank, institutional brokerage and a real estate development firm.   

Martin has more than 30 years of experience in the financial services industry. Martin founded Cabrera Capital in 2001 in Chicago, and since then the firm has grown to become a global financial enterprise with 9 offices nationwide and in London. The firm has issued over $2.9 trillion in debt and equities for municipalities and corporations domestically and internationally. The firm’s taxable fixed income and global equities trading desks transact over $2.7 billion in securities daily. In 2007, the firm expanded to real estate development providing advisory services including development, acquisition, and management. Currently, Cabrera Capital is transforming a thirty-six-acre vacant in-fill site on Chicago’s Southwest Side into a $550 million mixed-income and mixed-use community.   

He serves on several civic and community boards, including World Business Chicago, Illinois EDC, Homeboy Industries, the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, The Chicago Community Trust, and serves as Current Chairman of the Endowment and Life Trustee as Saint Ignatius College Prep. He also chairs the Real Estate Committee for the Archdiocese of Chicago and serves on the CNBC Financial Wellness Council. He has been featured in news publications that include CNBC, Crain’s Chicago Business, Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance, and Axios.   

Martin earned a Bachelor of Science in Finance from Northern Illinois University and studied at the London School of Economics.   

Mary Ellen Caron is the Chief Executive Officer of After School Matters, one of the nation’s largest and most successful providers of after-school and summer program opportunities for high school teens. Under her leadership, After School Matters has grown and enhanced its services – expanding by thousands of opportunities into more Chicago neighborhoods, growing the organization’s financial reserves and philanthropic support, implementing and enforcing system-wide program quality standards, taking ownership of and redeveloping property in both the Belmont Cragin and Pullman communities into teen-dedicated programming facilities, and advocating for the importance of youth development and the unlimited potential of teenagers throughout Chicago and beyond. 

Previously, Dr. Caron served as Commissioner of Chicago’s Department of Family and Support Services (DFSS). Prior to that role, Dr. Caron served as the Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Children and Youth Services (now part of DFSS), where she led community-based efforts to advance the well-being and development of Chicago’s youngest residents. Dr. Caron’s wealth of experience in education and youth development also includes being the founding principal of Frances Xavier Warde Elementary School in downtown Chicago, and working for nine years as an elementary school teacher in the Austin neighborhood. 

Dr. Caron earned her Ph.D. in educational leadership and policy from Loyola University, her Master’s degree in elementary education and Type 75 certificate from Concordia University, and her undergraduate degree from Rosary College. She currently serves on the boards of directors for the Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago, the Children at the Crossroads Foundation, and on multiple youth- and education-related advisory committees throughout Chicago. 

Fr. Gary Graf was ordained in 1984 and has spent decades serving immigrant communities through pastoral ministry, advocacy, and direct service. He began his ministry as a young priest in small villages in Mexico before returning to Chicago, where he has continued to serve in predominantly Spanish-speaking parishes.  

From the 1990s through 2009, Fr. Graf served as pastor of Most Blessed Trinity Parish in Waukegan, where he helped build a vibrant, largely immigrant parish community. During that time, he supported the development of small faith communities, expanded outreach to families in need, and helped found an immigration resource center offering education, legal guidance, and citizenship support. 

He later served as pastor of St. Gall Parish in Chicago’s Gage Park neighborhood from 2009 to 2016, leading a diverse, predominantly immigrant community. There, he continued to strengthen Hispanic ministry, support parish and school life, and foster a welcoming, community-centered environment rooted in faith and service. 

Fr. Graf is a longtime member of Priests for Justice for Immigrants and has consistently worked to connect faith, compassion, and social action. Most recently, he completed an almost 900-mile pilgrimage, walking from Dolton, Illinois to New York, known as “Step Up Speak Out” to raise awareness and advocate for the dignity and rights of immigrants. 

He currently serves as head pastor of Our Lady of the Heights Parish in Chicago Heights, Illinois.  

Across his ministry, Fr. Graf has become known for his deep relationships with parishioners, his hands-on pastoral presence, and his enduring commitment to justice and the dignity of every person. 

Michael J. Sacks is Chairman and CEO of GCM Grosvenor, a global alternative asset management firm headquartered in Chicago, with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, London, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul.

Michael joined GCM Grosvenor in 1990 and became its chief executive in 1994. Under Michael’s leadership, the firm grew from its position as an early participant in a cottage industry to its current position as a large diversified alternative asset management firm managing $97 billion for a global client base.

Michael has been a driving force behind GCM Grosvenor’s Infrastructure Advantage Strategy, which he views as central to the firm’s mission of aligning institutional capital with the interests of organized labor, government, and local communities. Launched in 2018, the strategy has created an estimated 47 million union work hours and will have a projected economic impact of over $42 billion. Michael views the firm’s infrastructure work through three core principles: partnership, purpose, and performance and is indicative of his broader commitment to using private capital as a tool for community and economic impact.

From 2011 to 2019, Michael served as Vice-Chairman of World Business Chicago (WBC) under Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the city’s delegate economic development organization. At WBC his leadership oversaw developing Chicago’s Plan for Economic Growth and Jobs, a Digital Manufacturing Design Lab which was the recipient of a U.S. Department of Defense Award, a Global Cities Economic Partnership with Mexico City, and a Gateway Cities Agreement with China, as well as instituting a Supply Chain Innovation Network and launching the Greater Chatham Initiative to spur development and strengthen the economy of pillar communities on Chicago’s south side.

During that time Michael also served on Mayor Emanuel’s Economic Council where he focused on achieving fair, evidenced-based funding for Illinois and Chicago Public Schools, city budget strategy, strengthening and reforming Chicago’s employee pension funds, and renegotiating the city’s parking meter lease to provide greater benefits for Chicago residents.

Michael’s philanthropic engagement is focused on driving educational equity in public schools, economic development and connecting arts and culture to communities. He has served on the Northwestern University Board of Trustees for 16 years. He and his wife Cari created the Sacks Family Scholarship Fund, which provides “no loan” scholarships to Chicago Public Schools students to attend Northwestern University. In total, 259 students have received a Sacks Family Scholarship, including 162 CPS students. In 2022, Michael and GCM Grosvenor partnered with Northwestern Medicine to create the GCM Grosvenor Discovery Program that provides career and technical education for CPS high school students, enabling them pathways to careers in the medical field. To date, 796 students have taken part in these programs.