Cara A. Hendrickson

Executive Director

Cara Hendrickson became Impact for Equity’s Executive Director in 2020. She is a change maker, passionate about using law and policy to tackle systemic inequities. Cara’s role as Executive Director is her second at Impact for Equity; earlier in her career, she was a Skadden Fellow at Impact for Equity, with a focus on housing and education issues.

Prior to becoming Executive Director of Impact for Equity, Cara served as the Chief of the Illinois Attorney General’s Public Interest Division for more than five years.  In that capacity, she supervised a Division with over 60 attorneys and staff who enforce civil rights, disability rights, workplace rights, and antitrust laws, in addition to conducting investigations and cases involving the False Claims Act, consumer fraud, and energy issues. At the Attorney General’s Office, Cara led a team of lawyers and staff that litigated and negotiated a wide-ranging consent decree to reform the Chicago Police Department.

An experienced litigator, Cara’s law practice focused on constitutional and civil rights litigation for more than eight years at Hughes Socol Piers Resnick & Dym, Ltd. She has also practiced at Massey & Gail, LLP, and Kirkland & Ellis, LLP.

Cara has been a Commissioner on the Illinois Executive Ethics Commission, which promotes ethics in Illinois public service, and she served on the board of the Public Interest Law Initiative and on the advisory board of the American Constitution Society, Chicago Chapter. She was a fellow in the 2014 class of Leadership Greater Chicago.

Cara served as a law clerk to the Honorable Ann Claire Williams, United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (Ret). She graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School and received her B.A. from Northwestern University.

Press Coverage:

Are Chicago cops ready for DNC protesters? Here are four things to watch for. by Chip Mitchell, WBEZ Chicago

‘This will not be 1968.’ Chicago police prepare for DNC as whole world watches once again. by Dan Petrella, A.D Quig, and Sam Charles, Chicago Tribune

Letters: State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s draft policy is a positive step forward by Cara Hendrickson, Chicago Tribune 

New policy would overhaul long-criticized Chicago Police Dept. traffic stop-and-search tactic by I-Team, ABC7 Chicago

In wake of fatal police shooting of Dexter Reed, local advocacy groups call for changes to traffic stops by Courtney Sisk, NBC5 Chicago

Leaders’ exits challenge Chicago police reform effort during crucial stretch by Annie Sweeny and Madeline Buckley, Chicago Tribune

Latest consent-decree report hits Chicago police leadership in key areas: Community policing and building community trust – Chicago Tribune

Mayor Lightfoot Demands CPD Change Foot Chase Policy After Shooting of 13-Year-Old by Amanda Vinicky, WTTW

City Council Votes to Allow Marijuana to Be Sold — Legally — Downtown by Heather Chorine, WTTW

Build trust? Start by enacting the police-reform measures already OK’d by Quintin Williams, Cara Hendrickson And Garien Gatewood, Crains Chicago Business