Gail Schechter

Gail Schechter joined H.O.M.E. as Executive Director in 2018. Originally from New York City, where she launched her career as a tenant organizer in 1984, Gail has been a local and national leader in fair, affordable, and intergenerational housing; enforcement and investigation of housing discrimination; housing development; and community organizing. She is also a widely recognized thought leader in conceiving of and implementing creative grassroots strategies for just, beloved communities, most recently as a co-founder and chair of the Skokie Alliance for Electoral Reform and the north suburban-based campaign, The Justice Project: The March Continues. Gail is also a co-founder of the Chicago-based Addie Wyatt Center for Nonviolence Training and the author of “We’re Gonna Open Up the Whole North Shore” in the anthology The Chicago Freedom Movement: Martin Luther King Jr. and Civil Rights Activism in the North (2016). In 2017, she gained the highest certification as a Level III Kingian Nonviolence Conflict Reconciliation Trainer from the University of Rhode Island, Center for Nonviolence & Peace Studies, founded by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s associate, Dr. Bernard LaFayette. In 2025, she was elected Trustee of the Village of Skokie. Gail holds a B.A. with Honors in History from Oberlin College and an M.A. in Urban and Environmental Policy from Tufts University.