Northern Illinois University
Northern Illinois Center for Nonprofit Excellence

Rebecca White Newgren is the former pastor of the SecondFirst Church downtown Rockford where she worked with the Rockford community to open the Rockford Overnight Cafe for those struggling with homelessness in cold winter months. Rebecca is actively working toward racial justice and against homelessness in Rockford. She has served on the boards of KFACT, Carpenter's Place, Stronghold Camp and Retreat Center, Jeremiah Development, Miss Carly's, and others. She has helped with several nonprofit startups and mergers across her career. Rebecca has a heart for diversity, equity and belonging.

Prior to coming to Rockford in 2015, Rebecca was a pastor and activist in the City of Philadelphia where she worked with three new church developments, supported a hospitality-oriented center for folks who were hungry and/or homeless, and started a multi-ethnic multi-class joy-filled preschool. Rebecca lives downtown Rockford with her three school-aged children and her partner Andy, who is a librarian and professor at Rockford University. She earned a B.A. from Kenyon College and a Master's in Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary. She was named one of the 16 people to watch in 2016 by the Rockford Register Star. Rebecca loves all things Rockford and is working to make it great for all people.

Rebecca's areas of skill include:

• Faith based organizations and churches
• Strategic and annual planning
• General facilitation
• Governance and leadership
• Nonprofit startups
• Mergers
• Pre-planning (mission, core values, stakeholder identification)
• Mission development and refinement
• Collaboration and collaborative planning
• Program development and evaluation
• Performance measurement
• Human resources
• Volunteer recruitment and management
• Team building
• Marketing and communications
• DEI and Belonging strategy, policy, and implementation
• Interim management
• Training (board, leadership, teamwork, personal development)