Phaedra M. Leslie
2023 recipient of the Distinguished Award for Foundational Contributions
At R CITY our mission is to bring the BEST of our city to build a path for families to walk from cradle to career to the glory of God. As we prepared for our very first Black History Showcase, we knew it would be a great evening to celebrate our beautiful children and youth but also, we didn’t want to pass up an opportunity to celebrate and honor some of the VERY best of R CITY whose contributions support our youth, our programs and our community, and this year we had the immense privilege of bestowing our first Distinguished Award for Foundational Contributions to Phaedra M. Leslie from ALL Construction.
When Phaedra heard about our Harambee Citybuilders tuckpointing apprenticeship program, she engaged her network to find every resource to support our training program. She provided access to job opportunities and mock interviews when by attending our 2022 Spring Opportunities fair for our program participants and graduates. She brought colleagues on a Harambee site visit and worked to provide donations of over 12 pallets of mortar for Harambee on 2 different occasions for our bricklaying course and for our summer program- to say she has helped us a TON is an understatement- she has helped 24 tons!
Beyond her contributions to Harambee and R CITY, she is a native Chicagoan who has spent her career connecting corporations, communities, and individuals. She is passionate about supporting people and communities to become more empowered. Her personal mission is to leave people, places, and things better than she found them.
Currently, Phaedra serves as the Vice President of Diversity, Workforce Development, and Community Engagement for ALL Construction Group – a family-owned business. There, she is an internal consultant to the President and project teams to support a company-wide strategy for diversity and inclusion; support workforce development initiatives to attract and retain a new generation of talent in masonry.
Phaedra is co-founder of the South Side Giving Circle of the Chicago Foundation for Women to provide grants to emerging organizations whose missions are to support Black women and girls on Chicago’s south side. She also serves on the board of the South East Chicago Commission (supporting regional economic development along Chicago’s south east lakefront), the SOS Children’s Villages of IL (an innovator in foster care) and is an inaugural board member of the Emerald South Community Economic Development Collaborative (a community convener and collaborator to increase local ownership and prosperity).
She exemplifies the absolute best of OUR CITY and we are honored to celebrate our 2023 recipient of the Distinguished Award for Foundational Contributions.
