Walder Foundation

06/02/2026

Applications are NOW OPEN for the 2027 Biota Awards, a Walder Foundation program that provides funding for independent investigators working in biodiversity at Illinois institutions!

💻 Apply by October 8, 2026 at 5 p.m. CT.

🌱 Review application information and requirements: biotaawards.org

05/27/2026

Meet the 9 extraordinary Orthodox women enrolled in the 2026 Walder Fellowship cohort of Gratz College’s Executive PhD in Jewish Studies program! 👏 👊

Congratulations to:
• Hannah Abrams, London, UK
• Chana Ben-Abraham, Dallas, TX
• Miriam Krupka Berger, Teaneck, NJ
• Rivi Frankel, Jerusalem, Israel
• Joanne Greenaway, London, UK
• Faye Kohn, Teaneck, NJ
• Rivky Schramm Krestt, Efrat, Israel
• Abigail H. Meyer, Brooklyn, NY
• Yaffa Setton, Oakhurst, NJ

The fully funded, leadership-focused Executive PhD in Jewish Studies program will enable them to advance their education, build leadership skills, and gain a credential that will help them advance in their work, benefiting the entire community.

Special thanks to Walder Foundation for their generous support of the program!

For more information on the fellowship program and participants: https://www.gratz.edu/academics/program/jewish-studies/executive-phd-jewish-studies/walder-cohort-jewish-studies-phd-2026

Chana Ben-Abraham
Rivi Frankel
Faye Kohn

05/27/2026

Looking for a fun weekend activity?

Head up to the Racine Art Museum (RAM) for a series of immersive shadow puppet performances by Walder Foundation Platform Award recipient Myra Su on Saturday, May 30!

Myra will perform as a part of RAM's newest exhibition, Cut It Out: Papercutting Traditions and Beyond, which highlights papercutting as a creative handcraft with roots in many cultures.

Through the exhibit, Myra and RAM join over 250 organizations in the Semiquincentennial initiative "Handwork: Celebrating American Craft 2026," a nationwide, year-long effort that showcases the importance of the handmade throughout history and in contemporary life.

🔦 Experience Myra's work: ramart.org/class/shadow-puppetry-showcase/

➡️ Learn more about Myra and fellow Walder Foundation Platform Award recipients: platformawards.org

05/15/2026

Congrats to 2024 Platform Award recipient Robyn Mineko Williams on being included in the Chicago Reader's spotlight featuring Asian American artists who are nourishing the performing arts landscape in Chicago and beyond! 💃

Robyn's 2024 work Hisako’s House, inspired by her grandmother’s experiences in an American internment camp in the 1940s, was recently transformed for an installation at Konstnärshuset /SKF in Stockholm, Sweden. The installation opens tomorrow and runs through June 13.

📰 Read more about Robyn and this installation in the Chicago Reader: chicagoreader.com/performing-arts/dance/aapi-heritage-month-dance/

➡️ Learn more about Walder Foundation's Platform Awards: platformawards.org

05/12/2026

Chicago faces a critical need for a robust and diverse pipeline of immigration legal advocates, especially as demand grows and workforce shortages intensify.

The Resurrection Project’s Colibrí Fellowship, Immigrant Justice Corps, and DePaul University College of Law’s Asylum & Immigration Law Clinic are helping recruit, train, and mentor the next generation of legal professionals who will sustain this work for years to come.

🔗 Read more about some Chicago area organizations' efforts and Walder Foundation’s legal ecosystem funding strategies: walderfoundation.org/news/strengthening-the-immigration-legal-ecosystem-in-chicago

🤩 Receive stories like this in your inbox: walderfoundation.org/stay-connected

05/07/2026

2022 Biota Awardee, Noé U. de la Sancha has been selected as a 2026-2027 U.S. Fulbright Scholar!

With this grant, Dr. de la Sancha will continue his 20-plus years of research in Paraguay, studying the affects of deforestation on small mammals and biodiversity as a whole. This work builds on research funded through Walder Foundation’s Biota Awards program. Congrats, Noé!

Read more: https://www.depaul.edu/news/us-fulbright-2026

Learn more about Noé’s research: https://www.biotaawards.org/allawards/noe-de-la-sancha

05/07/2026

Sharing some good news for Chicagoans and Hoosiers 🌱💚🌱

NFWF and partners announced four projects selected to receive $1.2 million in grant funding to enhance habitat and improve water quality in Chicago-Calumet region.

https://loom.ly/YggrNyY

The Chi-Cal River Fund is a partnership among NFWF and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. EPA Great Lakes Region, U.S. Forest Service, BNSF Railway, Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., Crown Family Philanthropies, Ga***rd & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, Hunter Family Foundation, the The Joyce Foundation, and the Walder Foundation.

Congrats to the grantees! The Wetlands Initiative The Morton Arboretum The Nature Conservancy in Indiana Calumet Collaborative

📷: Monarch butterfly on swamp milkweed | Photo credit: C A Milledge III/Getty

05/05/2026

💧 Tackling flooding takes more than rain gardens.

Aligned systems, shared data, and community leadership are necessary.

Meet some organizations that are strengthening Chicago’s green stormwater infrastructure by aligning systems, collecting and sharing data, and engaging communities:

➡️Alliance for the Great Lakes
➡️Chicago Department of Environment
➡️Healthy Schools Campaign
➡️Metropolitan Planning Council

🔗 Read more: walderfoundation.org/news/scaling-nature-to-meet-the-storm

🤩 Receive stories like this in your inbox: walderfoundation.org/stay-connected

05/01/2026

Diaspora-led and community-based organizations are working to expand their immigration legal services programs to be able to take on complex immigration law.

Groups like United African Organization, Indo-American Center, Instituto del Progreso Latino, and Syrian Community Network are working to ensure that high‑quality legal services are available in trusted spaces where community members already feel supported.

🔗 Read more about how these organizations are responding to a complex legal landscape: walderfoundation.org/news/strengthening-the-immigration-legal-ecosystem-in-chicago

🤩 Receive stories like this in your inbox: walderfoundation.org/stay-connected

04/29/2026

In an interview with ABC 7 Chicago, Biota Awardee Liza Lehrer of Lincoln Park Zoo's Urban Wildlife Institute was highlighted, providing education about the positive impacts bats have on the agricultural industry and sharing some concerns about how Chicago's built environment can harm bats.

🦇 Bats play a vital role in our city — controlling insects, supporting ecosystems, and quietly working behind the scenes to keep our urban environment healthy.

Lehrer's research focuses on understanding how we can create cities as places where wildlife, including bats, can thrive.

🤩 Learn more about her efforts and the efforts of fellow Biota Award recipients that are working toward enhancing biodiversity and conservation efforts in and beyond at biotaawards.org.

Bats are not flying rodents. Elgin teen Marlee Christiansen is on a mission to rebrand the winged mammal just in time for Earth Day.