Jason Estremera

Jason Estremera is the Executive Director of the Northwest Side CDC where he provides administrative management, budget oversight, and organizational leadership including the development and implementation of strategic objectives and organizational initiatives that maintain the integrity and identity of a Latinx commercial district and neighborhood.

After earning his Bachelors of Science at Northern Illinois University, Jason worked with JpMorgan Chase in retail banking. A merger brought Jason to Cleveland, Ohio where he graduated from Cleveland State University with his Masters of Business Administration and soon after his career in nonprofit began when being recruited as the Associate Director of the Northeast Ohio Hispanic Center for Economic Development. During this time, Jason also opened a social enterprise that supported youth in the Cleveland foster care program, created and performed in Cleveland’s first Latinx theater company, and cohosted a local Latinx television show.

Jason moved back to Chicago in the fall of 2019 after spending 10 years in Cleveland. He served the Portage Park community as Executive Director for the Six Corners Association and shortly after joined the Northwest Side Community Development Corporation (NWSCDC) as Executive Director.

A recipient of the 2021 CIBC Emerging Leadership Award and an Aspen Institute Fellow, over the last three years, he has grown the NWSCDC from an organizing agency with a housing focus to a direct service provider with three programmatic areas: rental counseling, business development, and economic and cultural placekeeping growing the team from a staff of three to twenty and increasing the operational budget over 400%.

When not working, Jason enjoys traveling, yoga, running, reading, collecting art, and live theatre.  Jason owns a condo in the West Rogers Park neighborhood where he resides with his dog and partner.