The Chicago-based Richard H. Driehaus Foundation announced today that Cindy Chan Roubik, current Deputy Commissioner at the City of Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development (DPD), will join the Foundation as its Senior Program Director for the Built Environment on Monday, August 3, 2026. She replaces Brad White in this position, upon his retirement. Roubik will play a key role in identifying, developing, supporting, and evaluating potential grant recipients, partners, and funding opportunities, and communicating potential grants and their impact to the Directors and to the broader field. This senior leadership hiring follows the recent announcement that veteran arts executive Lori Dimun joins the Driehaus Foundation as its Senior Program Director, Arts and Culture this summer.
With assets now exceeding $450 million, the Driehaus Foundation is among Chicago’s largest philanthropic organizations. Building on the philanthropic vision of founder Richard H. Driehaus, the Foundation is committed to enriching the lives of all Chicagoans by improving the built environment, cultivating a robust and diverse arts and culture ecosystem, and supporting investigative journalism that fosters transparency, accountability, and effective government.
“Cindy Chan Roubik has long been at the forefront of shaping Chicago’s built environment through her work at the DPD. Cindy’s depth of knowledge – in addition to her commitment to using architecture, urban planning and preservation to benefit all Chicagoans – makes her the ideal candidate for this position. I am thrilled to welcome Cindy to the Driehaus Foundation and look forward to seeing how she will use her new position to further uplift the city via its built environment,” said Driehaus Foundation President and Executive Director Lynn Osmond.
Added Roubik, “My 20+ years’ experience managing high-impact initiatives for the City of Chicago – including building broad support for program and planning goals, developing transparent and equitable processes, and delivering outcomes that generate multiple public benefits – should serve me well at Driehaus Foundation. I look forward to utilizing and expanding these practices as the Foundation helps make the city work better for the people who call it home.”
As Driehaus Foundation Senior Program Director for the Built Environment, Roubik’s wealth of expertise will allow the Foundation to deepen relationships and meet a multitude of needs in the many neighborhoods of Chicago. The Senior Program Director role incorporates grantmaking leadership; managing budget planning, oversight, and reporting; developing, managing, and evaluating philanthropic investments; and representing the Foundation and its Directors to existing and prospective grant recipients and other external stakeholders.
Cindy Chan Roubik has worked at the City of Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development for over twenty years, has served as the department’s Deputy Commissioner since 2022 and was supervising all seven of the department's regional planning teams. During her tenure with the city, Roubik led the Missing Middle Infill Housing initiative which sells city-owned lots for $1 and provides grants to support the development of 2- to 6- unit owner-occupied homes. She also oversaw the LaSalle Corridor Revitalization initiative to convert six historic buildings into mixed-income housing in the heart of the Loop. Through these projects and others, Roubik addressed Chicago’s built environment including repopulating disinvested communities, converting vacant office and retail spaces, and adding to the city’s housing stock, including more affordable housing. In 2022, Roubik was a Civic Leadership Academy Fellow at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy. Prior to joining the City of Chicago, she worked in private practice at Lucien Lagrange as a designer for several high-rise condominium and hotel projects. She is originally from Montreal, Canada, and is an alumna of McGill University’s School of Architecture.
The Driehaus Foundation Built Environment program works to ensure the built environment is enhanced by the preservation and reuse of historic places, community-driven planning, and sustainable and well-designed new buildings and landscapes. These are key strategies for creating a sense of place that reflects an expansive and complex history and a shared future. The program supports organizations and projects that advocate for effective policies, undertake urban planning aimed at the preservation of Chicago’s historic built fabric, protect its parks and open spaces, and otherwise celebrate and preserve the unique character of its neighborhoods. The Driehaus Foundation is committed to the idea that successful historic preservation, urban planning, and new architecture must be understood and undertaken as part of a decades-long continuum that endows a given city or town with a sense of place.
Founded in 1983 by legendary investor and philanthropist Richard H. Driehaus (1942–2021), the Foundation has enriched the lives of Chicagoans for more than four decades. With its expanded scale and bold vision for the future, the Driehaus Foundation is poised to have even greater impact.
