Governors

ABBY WALSH
​President

Abby Walsh (Alumna ‘10) is the Assistant Director of Fundraising for The Newberg Group (TNG), which facilitates effective relationships that lead clients to peak results, enabling them to be leaders and create a positive impact on their community, state and country.  

​Prior to going TNG, Abby was the Legislative Liaison & Member Engagement Coordinator for the Health Care Council of Illinois (HCCI).  She was responsible for lobbying the legislature and oversaw grassroots efforts by owners and employees of more than 300 facilities on Illinois campaigns.  Previously, Abby was an Associate with Michael Best Strategies, specializing in lobbying; government relations; public affairs; crisis management; shared value strategies; political partnership development; and community/stakeholder engagement strategies. Additionally, Abby served as a staff member under Governor Bruce Rauner holding the positions of Deputy Director of Legislation for the Illinois Department of Human Services, followed by Director of Legislation for the Illinois Lottery.  Prior to these positions, Abby spent nearly a decade working in the Illinois State Legislature as lead policy advisor and strategist and as Chief of then Senator Bill Brady, Senate Republican Leader from 2009-2015. 

Additionally, Abby has been involved in campaigns at every level of Illinois politics.   Abby is an alumna of Illinois State University. She has participated in The Lincoln Series, Leadership Illinois, and is currently an Ambassador of Hope Institute for Children and Families and Secretary fo the Springfield Ballet Company. ​

SARAH RIDDELL
Immediate Past PRESIDENT

Sarah Riddell (Alumna ’07) is an attorney who advises domestic and foreign exchanges, derivatives clearing organizations, and other financial institutions on a broad range of regulatory matters, including U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) registration and compliance. 

Ms. Riddell advises clients on evolving areas of the law, including the legal frameworks applicable to cryptocurrencies, Blockchain and cybersecurity. 

Ms. Riddell also worked at the CFTC as a policy attorney, working on Dodd-Frank-related rulemakings and examinations of derivatives clearing organizations, including those designated as systemically important. 
​
Prior to attending law school, Ms. Riddell worked on Capitol Hill for Representative Mario Diaz Balart (FL) and Senator Wayne Allard (CO). Ms. Riddell credits who work on Capitol Hill to her experience as a Lincoln Series Fellow.

Katie Justak
​1st Vice President

Katie Justak (Alumna ‘09) has always had a passion for politics.  Since age seven, she volunteered regularly for local Republican campaigns, beginning in Will County where she was raised and most recently in Cook County where she lives presently. Katie’s professional background is in public relations. She started her career in consumer marketing at GolinHarris, then in healthcare at Edelman, both in Chicago. She went on to utilize her public relations talents as program manager of education at the American Academy of Periodontology, successfully working as a liaison between dental educators, students, dental associations and the Academy.
​
Katie is a full-time mother of four children. She actively volunteers at her children’s schools, her church and as an assistant scoutmaster in her daughters' BSA troop. Katie also enjoys serving her community of La Grange. In 2013 she was appointed to the La Grange 2020 Task Force by the village president, where she served as vice chair. This task force researched, drafted and provided recommendations on the direction the Village Board of Trustees should consider in an effort to meet several goals for the Village by 2020.  Additionally, she has served as chair and vice chair of the Citizens’ Council of La Grange and most recently served as governor on The Lincoln Series Board. In December 2021, Katie was appointed as Lyons Township Committeewoman.

VASAVI CHAKKA
secretary

Vasavi Chakka is the founder and President of ARAALA Inc. a professional consulting firm that offers services in Leadership Development, Career Counseling, Business Processes Improvements, Service Delivery, and Project Management. She is passionate about value based and holistic approaches to K-12 education. She advocates and focuses on values driven civic and youth leadership development especially related to women’s education and empowerment to help them unleash their full potential to grow in their chosen fields as leaders.

Prior to coming to USA, she worked as a journalist in India for the 2nd largest circulated daily newspaper in South India, and as a research associate at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Vasavi is a seasoned IT management professional with more than 20+ years of experience of working with global organizations such as IBM (Poughkeepsie, NY), IBM Watson Research Center (Yorktown Heights, NY), Getronics (Houston, TX) and Siemens/Atos (Buffalo Grove, IL)

​Vasavi has been married to Dr. Sudhakar Chakka for the last 34 years, and is a proud mother of two highly achieving children, daughter Siri, a Chemical Engineer (UofI Urbana Champaign) and MBA from McCombs Business school UT, Austin; son Prahith who graduated from University of Minnesota in Economics and Political Science and starting his Law Education from University of Pennsylvania starting in September 2021.

Laura Kotelman
​Treasurer

Laura Kotelman has a B.A. in Political Science and Spanish from Lake Forest College where she was the College Republicans’ chapter president for two terms and honored as Senior 25 (selected based on history of showing great leadership among peers as well as demonstrating a positive impact on the College’s community). After a year with the Illinois State Senate Republican staff, she attended the University of Illinois College of Law where she was elected to the University Senate.

After law school, Laura worked for Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan in policy and program development and went on to work in state government affairs at a major insurance trade association. She then spent a decade with one of the world’s premier law firms as a marketing and business development professional with a focus on the insurance industry. Laura joined Governor Bruce Rauner’s Administration in January 2016 serving as chief of staff for two state agencies. She currently serves as an assistant general counsel for a state agency in Chicago. Laura serves on the board of the Chicago Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy. She is a former leader of the Chicago Young Republicans, which received multiple national awards during her tenure. Laura is the 44th Ward Republican Committeewoman in Chicago and resides in the Lakeview neighborhood.

​Jillian Bernas
​

Jillian Bernas is an elected official and active in local government in her hometown. She is a former educator who earned her BA in Spanish and Secondary Education from Saint Mary’s College and her MEd from the University of Notre Dame and learned the best way to learn something is to do it. She hopes to share with other women the lessons she learned working on various campaigns and as a candidate herself.
​
As a teacher, Jillian taught both middle school Spanish and English in the United States and abroad. Interested in transitioning her career to policy work, she returned to graduate school for an AM/MPP from the University of Chicago/University of Chile and had been working in international relations until accepting a job closer to home with the recent arrival of her daughter. She currently drives the external affairs strategy for a local company.  
Jillian serves her community as a Trustee on the Schaumburg Township District Library Board, Chair of the Township of Schaumburg Mental Health Committee, a volunteer ESL teacher at her church in Schaumburg and as a member of her local Rotary Club. She lives in Schaumburg with her husband Angel and daughter Patricia. ​

​JO CAULKINS

As a member of The Lincoln Series Board of Governors, Jo Caulkins welcomes the opportunity to share her enthusiasm and passion for politics with the future leaders of Illinois. She became active in politics while attending Eastern Illinois University, where she earned a bachelor’s of science in Early Childhood Education. Later, she also earned a certification in Community Arts Management from Sangamon State University.

Overtime Jo has worked on national, state and local campaigns, but it’s her passion for her community that helped her develop an extensive network due to her involvement in local causes and organizations. She was active as a Rotarian, Greater Decatur Chamber of Commerce Ambassador, and Limitless Ambassador. She has served as a board member of the following organizations: Macon County Republican Women, Decatur Area Arts Council, Gallery 510, Obesity Prevention Coalition, Keep Macon County Beautiful, Keep IL Beautiful, Beautify Decatur Coalition, The Garden Club of Decatur, and the American Association of University Women. She continues her involvement by volunteering at the Salvation Army, Macon County Animal Shelter and Decatur Day Care Center.

She received the following honors for her dedication to her community: YWCA Woman of Excellence Community & Social Service Award, Outstanding Neighborhood Achievement from the Coalition of Neighborhood Organizations, Herald & Review Newspaper “40 over 40” Award, and the Illinois PTA Golden Apple Award.

​Jo enjoyed a 20-year career in education, spanning pre-k through college. Simultaneously, she established and managed three highly successful retail stores. Upon retirement from retail, Jo worked part-time for the next 10 years in diverse and rewarding fields as the Decatur Area Arts Council Special Projects Coordinator, an adjunct professor of Entrepreneurship at Millikin University, University of Illinois Extension in Economic Development, and executive director of the Macon County Health Foundation.

She resides in Decatur with her husband of 48 years, Illinois State Representative Dan Caulkins and their cats, Puss’n Boots.