East Village Association 2012-2013 officers
Neal McKnight, president
For the past year McKnight has been an EVA director and co-chair of the Planning, Preservation & Development committee. The longtime resident of Chicago is active in a number of civic activities, and is a founding partner of the law firm McKnight, Kitzinger, McCarty & Pravdic LLC.
McKnight's practice focuses on insurance coverage disputes and commercial litigation. This background provides him with a unique understanding of Chicago’s diverse communities and the culture of Chicago’s legal community. The Tulane University law graduate is a member of the Illinois bar, the trial bar for United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and the bar of the United States Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
Peter Locke, vice president
Peter Locke, his wife Ronda and their two daughters have been residents of East Village for seven years on the 800 block of North Wood Street. He is honored and excited about the opportunity to serve as vice president of the EVA.
Peter is a co-founder and managing director of TerraLocke Sustainability Consultants, whose clients include the City of Chicago, Columbia College and State of Missouri. In addition to his work on sustainability-focused projects, Locke is on the board of Local First Chicago and Chicago Neighborhoods First, and he chairs the Chicago Sustainable Business Alliance's Public Policy Group. He regularly speaks on sustainability topics.
Prior to founding TerraLocke in 2008, Peter spent 15 years in the private sector as a business consultant. Peter holds an MBA from the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY, and a BA from Clark University in Worcester, MA. He looks forward to continuing the momentum of the organization and making the East Village one of the most livable, vibrant neighborhoods.
Kok Keng (KK) Goh, treasurer
It has been a year since I joined the East Village Association and served as treasurer, and what a year we’ve had! From the recent crime wave to the plans for a new development at the old Pizza Hut (finally!), it’s safe to say that I have learned a great deal about our neighborhood issues and the level of community involvement required to resolve them.
Just a quick background about myself: I grew up in Singapore, a city-state island about 9,300 miles away on the other side of our planet. I studied at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, worked as a management consultant, and am currently an investor in real estate projects. I moved to East Village just over a year ago and I’ve grown to love this neighborhood for its mix of inhabitants and blend of architecture.
But it’s serving on the EVA board that made me realize an important fact -- a great neighborhood takes years to build and minutes to lose. The recent issue we’ve had with the lifting of liquor moratoriums to accommodate CVS is just one such example. That this issue could exacerbate ongoing issues related to liquor sales never occurred to me until I got to listen to the community perspective. Needless to say, this experience and others like it has left me with a deep sense of appreciation for EVA’s role in shaping the neighborhood. It is from this perspective that I hope to continue contributing towards East Village’s development as EVA’s treasurer.
Meghan Quinn, secretary
Meghan Quinn is a second year Master of Fine Arts candidate at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago exploring projects in Architecture, Interior Architecture, Designed Objects, and Social Practice. Prior to moving to Chicago in 2010, Meghan was an architectural designer in Los Angeles, California and Austin, Texas, working on residential, commercial and landscape architecture projects. She is a LEED Accredited Professional with a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Southern California. Meghan is originally from Stockton, California and currently lives in West Town with her husband, Wesley, and their dog, Olive.
