Built by nonprofit leaders, for nonprofit leaders.

Joel has spent more than three decades building, leading, and strengthening nonprofit and civic organizations. Beginning with Sunshine Gospel Ministries in 1999, he spent more than 20 years leading the organization through relocation to the South Side, program development, fundraising, organizational growth, and the launch of new initiatives including Sunshine Enterprises and Greenline Coffee. Sunshine Enterprises grew from a startup idea into an organization supporting entrepreneurs across South and West Side communities.

In 2022, Joel joined the University of Chicago as the Interim Vice President for Civic Engagement and External Affairs, providing leadership across civic engagement, federal relations, business diversity, and commercial real estate operations.

He has also helped design and lead organizations including Emerald South, the BLR Center for Flourishing Communities, Strides for Peace, and the Chicago Fellowship.

At Coach House, Joel brings the perspective of an Executive Director who has had to build programs, raise money, lead teams, work with boards, manage growth, and make difficult organizational decisions himself. He brings a visionary spirit and an ability to make very complicated concepts clear. He is a celebrated teacher and loves to do deep dives with nonprofit leaders, getting to the bottom of layered and nuanced issues.

Paula has worked alongside nonprofit and community leaders for more than three decades. She and Joel began working with Sunshine Gospel Ministries in 1999, first helping rebuild and operate its Michigan camp and then, after the organization moved its work to the South Side, spending more than two decades helping develop programs, raise resources, cultivate donors, and build the systems that supported Sunshine’s growth.

She later helped launch and operate Greenline Coffee, worked with Chicago Connections and One On One, and has provided development and operational support to organizations including Strides for Peace and the BLR Center.

Paula brings to Coach House the perspective of someone who has spent years turning vision into the practical work that keeps an organization functioning: programs, fundraising, systems, relationships, logistics, and follow-through. She is especially focused on helping founders move from carrying everything themselves to building organizations that can operate more effectively and sustainably.

Raising seven children in Woodlawn gave Paula a deep capacity for managing complexity—keeping track of people, details, competing needs, and next steps while making sure no one gets lost in the process. She brings that same steady, attentive coordination to Coach House clients and operations.

Franklin has worked in community and nonprofit leadership since 1991 and has been part of the Coach House story long before Coach House had a name. He began partnering with Joel and Paula through Sunshine Gospel Ministries in 1999. When they moved to the South Side in 2004, they did so in part to work alongside Franklin and City Church and to become rooted in the Woodlawn community.

Earlier in his career, Franklin served in leadership and community-focused roles with organizations including By The Hand Club, the YMCA, New Life, Dalton, and Holy Trinity. He later helped build Chicago Connections and One On One and went on to serve in partnership and development roles with LCCO and Focus Fairies. Across those organizations, his work has consistently centered on connecting people, building trust across neighborhoods and institutions, and helping community-rooted leaders access relationships, resources, and opportunities.

He has also served in pastoral leadership and has spent decades helping others understand what it means to work in communities with humility, longevity, and local accountability.

At Coach House, Franklin brings deep neighborhood experience, an extraordinary network of relationships, and a long view of community leadership. He helps ensure that our work stays grounded in the realities, strengths, relationships, and aspirations of the leaders and communities we serve.

Caleb grew up in Woodlawn watching ideas become programs, organizations, and neighborhood initiatives. From an early age, he saw both the creativity of community-rooted leaders and the practical challenges of turning good ideas into something organized, usable, and sustainable. That experience shaped the builder’s mindset he now brings to technology, product design, marketing, and learning systems at Coach House.

Professionally, Caleb brings more than a decade of experience across technology, product development, marketing, education, and program operations. He is the founder of Bandto, an AI-driven networking platform that he designed and launched from concept to market, leading product development, partnerships, fundraising, marketing, and day-to-day operations. Through that work he has built partnerships with organizations including Harvard, Princeton, Wharton, MIT, Industrious, and Chicago Public Libraries.

Earlier in his career, Caleb served as Marketing Director for Rancilio Group North America, where he led marketing strategy, sales funnels, brand development, digital content, SEO, website optimization, and product positioning. He also spent several years with After School Matters in program operations and as a photography instructor, designing curriculum, managing budgets and equipment, supporting instructors, and helping young people build both technical skill and creative confidence.

At Coach House, Caleb is the architect and builder of the Coach House Platform and helps translate decades of nonprofit experience into technology, tools, curriculum, and learning systems that are practical, intuitive, and useful to community-rooted leaders. He brings a builder’s mindset to the work—taking complicated ideas, making them understandable, and turning them into products and experiences people can actually use.

Karissa grew up in Woodlawn around the people, relationships, and day-to-day realities that make community work possible. She saw firsthand how much strong organizations depend on trust, communication, follow-through, and the ability to keep many moving pieces connected. That background helps her bring both operational discipline and a strong relational instinct to the Coach House client experience.

Professionally, Karissa brings experience in high-stakes operations, client management, compliance, logistics, sales, and process improvement. At MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company, she has managed key-account operations and complex dispute resolution for major global freight partners, while also serving as a selected leadership trainee and internal systems champion focused on digital tools, change management, and team-wide process improvement.

Previously, at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, she managed the administrative lifecycle of medical residency and fellowship programs, coordinating credentialing, regulatory compliance, scheduling, recruitment, and communication across program directors, faculty, residents, and outside agencies. She has also served as a General Manager in a sales-driven environment, leading staff, managing operations and financial performance, improving retention, and building local partnerships. Her additional training in high-ticket sales strengthens the client-facing and relationship-building side of her work.

At Coach House, Karissa helps create a client experience that is clear, responsive, and well organized—keeping people, details, deadlines, and next steps moving together. As a mother of two young daughters, she also brings the same steady ability to manage competing priorities, stay attentive to people, and keep complex work moving without losing the human side of it.