Andrea Durbin

Andrea Durbin has been the Chief Executive Officer of Illinois Collaboration on Youth since 2012. A passionate and life-long advocate for young people, she leads ICOY’s work to improve the lives of children, youth, and their families. Prior to becoming CEO, Andrea served as policy and advocacy director for ICOY and led the agency’s federally-funded capacity-building initiative for youth service agencies in Chicago.

In 2017, Andrea helped to shepherd a long-discussed merger with the Child Care Association of Illinois, which took effect on July 1, 2017. Following the merger, ICOY is now the largest provider voice for services to children, youth and families, representing nearly 100 organizations across the state.

In 2016 and 2017, Andrea led the effort to ensure that human service providers were paid for the work they did during Illinois’ historic and destructive state budget impasse, forming the Pay Now Illinois coalition to sue Governor Bruce Rauner and state agency heads over unpaid contracts. The lawsuit attracted national attention and was key in ensuring that providers were eventually paid in full for their work when the two-year impasse ended.

Andrea serves on several high-level committees and workgroups, representing the needs of at-risk children and youth and the agencies that serve them, including as an invited member of Governor Pritzker’s Healthy Families and Communities Transition Team. She represents providers through the Social Services Advisory Council, the Child Welfare Advisory Committee and the Mental Health Opportunities for Youth Diversion Task Force, among many others. She is the Chair of the ACT Now after school coalition; in that role, she has led a comprehensive restructuring and overhaul of the coalition’s governance and operations.

In 2019, Andrea was recognized with the Social Impact Award from the School of Social Service Administration (SSA) at the University of Chicago. Chicago Business Journal named her a Woman of Influence in 2017.

Prior to joining ICOY, Andrea worked for seven years in education, including serving as the Director of Communications at SSA, and for eight years at Aunt Martha’s Health and Wellness, where she led efforts to develop programs for high-risk youth, and primary and preventive health services for medically underserved communities. She has a Master’s Degree in Social Service Administration from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism from Northwestern University. Andrea lives in Chicago with her husband and their three teen-aged and young adult children. She is active in her local community as a Trustee for Morgan Park Academy and serves as an adjunct faculty member at DePaul University’s School of Public Service.