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Melissa Mallinson, Director of Programming and Membership
Melissa Mallinson serves as Executive Director of the Oak Park-River Forest Chamber of Commerce, bringing 25+ years of nonprofit leadership experience and a deep commitment to community-centered work. She officially stepped into the role in April 2026 following a competitive, multi-phase search process conducted by the Chamber’s Board of Directors.
Before her appointment, Melissa joined the Chamber team in February 2025 as Director of Programming and Membership. In that role, she developed expansive new initiatives, strengthened member engagement, and built trusted relationships across the business community. Her strong institutional knowledge, combined with her collaborative and relational leadership, makes her an exceptional leader for the Chamber - well-equipped to build on the momentum and expand its impact.
Melissa’s career spans leadership roles in prominent nonprofit and cultural organizations, including the Old Town School of Folk Music, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and the Mary Crane Center. She has extensive experience designing and implementing effective programs, developing evaluation frameworks, and facilitating meaningful community engagement initiatives. As Director of Membership for the Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana, she led a team of 27 staff serving more than 40,000 members.
Her work has included notable initiatives such as Guitars for Growth at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center, developed in partnership with the Chicago Community Trust Arts Infusion Initiative, and The Lullaby Project, in collaboration with Carnegie Hall, which paired teen mothers with professional songwriters to create original lullabies for their children.
Melissa is also an active civic leader and volunteer. She is the founder of the 501(c)(3) Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival and has served as Board Treasurer for Acts of Kindness Cabaret and on the Financial Review Committee for Impact Grants Chicago, a women-led grantmaking collective. She was named a 2018 Allstate Foundation Executive Leadership Fellow.
She holds an MBA from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Contact Melissa: mmallinson@oprfchamber.org
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Julian Sanchez, Events and Engagement Manager
Julian Sanchez is the Events and Engagement Manager at the Oak Park–River Forest Chamber of Commerce, where he works to make every gathering a reason to be glad you left the house. With a talent for creating events that are both well-run and genuinely fun, Julian focuses on fostering connections that strengthen the local business community.
A professional portrait photographer and lifelong artist, Julian draws on a creative foundation built during his time at Northwestern University, where he earned a degree in Film, Television, and Radio, a minor in Theater, and a certificate in Civic Engagement. His experience teaching middle school drama and working in the nonprofit sector deepened his commitment to building inclusive, welcoming spaces.
Growing up in Pilsen, Julian witnessed firsthand the impacts of rapid gentrification, which fueled his passion for community building on a larger scale. Today, that perspective shapes his work — ensuring Chamber events don’t just bring people together, but also celebrate and preserve the unique character of Oak Park and River Forest.
Contact Julian: jsanchez@oprfchamber.org
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Mark Walden, Program Manager
Mark is Program Manager at the Oak Park Chamber of Commerce, and at other times of the week wears the hat of a property manager, nonprofit fundraiser, or snow removal contractor. He sometime looks goofy due to wearing all those hats. Mark appreciates the OPRF area for its independent businesses, trees, garage sales, and architecture. But he lives in Chicago because that's where his wife and his ultimate frisbee game are.
Contact Mark: mwalden@oprfchamber.org
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Carolyn Henning, Billing & Membership Coordinator
Carolyn is a lifelong resident of Cook County and lives in Oak Park. She spent 15 years working at consumer ad agencies in Traffic/Print Production. One day she responded to a Mom's Mail help-wanted ad that down the road fortuitously landed her a job at the OPRF Chamber. Carolyn likes good barbeque and dabbles in gardening and cooking.
Carolyn is the person you will be contacting to talk about your billing, updating your membership data and creating eblasts.
Contact Carolyn: chenning@oprfchamber.org
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Jordi Murillo, Marketing Coordinator
Jordi started as the Chamber's graphic design intern and never quite left. On top of designing most of what you've seen with the Chamber logo on it, he's also picked up the newsletters and manages the social accounts. His favorite project here at the Chamber is the Community Connection newsletter, where he keeps readers in the loop on local resources and happenings. Are you subscribed?
He comes to the role with a Visual Communications and Fine Arts background – studying at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and taking on freelance design and marketing work for small businesses. Across all of it, he cares about the same thing: serving his community. His studio practice is rooted in telling the stories of people around him — working-class life, cultural identity, and the quiet stuff that usually gets overlooked. Those values are what he brings to every communication the Chamber puts out: highlighting the people who make this community what it is.
Contact Jordi: jmurillo@oprfchamber.org
