We had the chance to sit down with Kamila Hines Muhammad, Merit Class of 2012, former faculty member, and newly appointed Chair of Merit’s Associate Board. She talks about how Merit was an important part of her high school journey and an influence upon her later academic career—studying at both Northwestern and Harvard Universities—and her current profession as a Program Officer and what it means to play an integral part in distributing resources to various organizations in Chicago which promote equitable access to opportunity in a variety of sectors.
Okay, let’s start with introductions!
My name is Kamila Hines Muhammad. I use she/her pronouns, and was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago. I am currently a Program Officer at Alphawood Foundation Chicago. When I was at Merit, I played clarinet and saxophone, and I graduated in 2012.
How did you first hear about Merit and at what age did you begin your studies here?
I started when I was 13, during the summer after seventh grade. I don’t exactly remember how we found out about Merit. I think kids at my school were enrolled, and my mom heard about it that way. All I knew about it was that it was hard and I didn’t really want to go because I just wanted to be a kid and goof off in the lunchroom. My mom said, “No, you’re going to this audition.” I went in kicking and screaming, and I ended up doing okay at the audition. I joined the summer band camp and was accepted into the Alice S. Pfaelzer Conservatory. I was part of the Conservatory for five years playing clarinet and saxophone as involved in a lot of things. I was in the clarinet choir, the Latin Jazz Band, the Honors Jazz Ensemble, Wind Symphony, Merit Philharmonic, and various chamber ensembles.
Wow, you were busy.
I was very busy! I put in 40 hours a week at Merit between sophomore year and senior year of high school.
You have a Bachelor of Music from Northwestern and a Master of Education from Harvard. I’m curious about how your journey as a musician at Merit influenced you to make the college and career choices that you did.
Pursu[ing]music professionally was a gateway to scholarship opportunities, and I am very grateful and blessed that I got to go to college for free. However, it wasn’t necessarily my initial plan. It takes a lot of discipline, detail orientation, and dedication to pursue music at a high level. That was something that Merit taught me which translated well to my studies, especially during my undergrad at Northwestern. I was prepared in a way that some other students weren’t. Merit really created a really strong foundation for my musical knowledge and my work ethic.
Merit was extremely influential in my graduate school decision; after my undergrad, I saw that Merit had a job opening for an instructor for the MMiC [Merit Music in Communities] program. I got the job and became an instructor at schools on the South and West side in neighborhoods like Auburn Gresham, Bronzeville, and West Garfield Park. In working with those schools, I realized the vast inequities between students who I worked with on the South and West Sides versus students who lived on the North Side. Students on the North Side had a plethora of resources disposable to them, and the students on the South and West Side largely lacked the infrastructure to have successful educational outcomes. These
experiences motivated me to study education policy at Harvard. I really wanted to shift the way arts education resources were allocated for Black and Brown youth in Chicago. My experience as an MMiC instructor was absolutely transformational for me. If I hadn’t gone to Merit, I wouldn’t have gone to Harvard. Merit was really influential in my decisions to be community oriented, to maintain the arts as an anchor in my life, and to pursue excellence. To know that I have the potential to be great and to maximize that potential is something that I got from Merit; being there lit a fire under me and was a catalyst for me to exceed and excel in a way that I wouldn’t have otherwise.
“If I hadn't gone to Merit, I wouldn't have gone to Harvard. Merit was really influential in my decisions to be community oriented, to maintain the arts as an anchor in my life, and to pursue excellence. To know that I have the potential to be great and to maximize that potential is something that I got from Merit; being there lit a fire under me and was a catalyst for me to exceed and excel in a way that I wouldn't have otherwise.”
You have such a special connection with Merit, having been both a student and a faculty member. Now, you are the newly appointed Chair of the Associate Board. As your role at Merit has shifted once again, could you tell me your initial thoughts about continuing to be part of Merit in a capacity that is more donor and volunteer-focused?
In late 2020, Meredith [Barber], Merit’s Vice President for Development & Marketing, asked me to be on a virtual leadership panel online. It was the first touchpoint I’d had with Merit for a few years at that time beyond following on social media. So, I spoke on this leadership series, and it was a cool opportunity. The following year, I saw Meredith at a conference, and she introduced herself. As we were talking, she suggested I join the Associate Board. I wanted to continue to have a touchpoint with Merit as an adult, knowing that I could no longer be a student there and that I am not tapped into the music community in the same way enough to be a teacher anymore. Merit also shaped my life trajectory in a lot of different ways. I wanted to have a way to give back and have an organization that I worked with that was aligned with my values, be a part of something that meant a lot to me as a young person.
I have the opportunity to give back to students now. I really enjoy talking to them and sharing my life experience to hopefully benefit them. That’s something that’s really important to me, and I think important for them to see because I’m not just some old white dude who went to Merit 50 years ago; I’m a fairly recent alum. I’m a queer Black woman. I’m there for the kids to see that this is what their life can look like in 10 years. I’m one of them: I grew up in a community similar to what a lot of them grow up in, and I think it’s just really good representation of what is possible, which was something that I didn’t really have at Merit when I was growing up.
Could you talk about how you came to be in the professional space you are now as a Program Officer at Alphawood Foundation?
In graduate school, I pivoted away from education policy work and moved more towards qualitative research methods and nonprofit management. I then worked at a large music nonprofit in New York City and noticed that there was this huge emphasis on metrics and presenting specific data to our funders. I was like, why? Why isn’t it good enough that we are running the program? I wondered who makes decisions about funding and metrics. That’s when I learned what a program officer was: in my current role, I’m a conduit between a well-resourced individual and community organizations. I do a lot of relationship building, craft a narrative of what a nonprofit is doing, and advocate for nonprofits to receive funding. Prior to being a Program Officer, when I worked as a Director of Education at a nonprofit in Chicago, I had a meeting with a funder and it was terrifying. After that interaction, I decided that I wanted to be a Program Officer and shift the ways philanthropy is practiced. I wanted to have more systemic impact than I was having in my more direct service roles in nonprofits. My current role allows me to have more systemic impact and to provide much-needed resources for the direct service organizations which provide programming for Black and Brown youth on the South and West Sides of Chicago.
In 2023, I started my job at Alphawood Foundation and I’m grateful to have an opportunity to mobilize resources to Black and Brown communities on the South and West Sides, not just in music and the arts, but in other issue areas as well. Merit really prepared me for this job; the discipline and detail orientation I learned as a Merit student continue to shape my work ethic to this day. If it weren’t for Merit, I wouldn’t have had the strong musical experience needed to thrive at Northwestern. Without the professional experience I had with Merit, I would not have earned a degree from Harvard. And without those experiences, I wouldn’t be in the role that I’m in now. Merit genuinely shaped my life for the better, and I’m just so grateful for the opportunities I received.
How do you feel about the future of Merit and your deep connection with this
organization?
I got to be in a Board of Trustees meeting a couple weeks ago, and the former President of Merit, Duffie Adelson, was there. It was just so cool to be able to thank her. In that interaction, she sort of passed the baton to me in a way. It was really beautiful. She said, “you’re the next generation of advocates for Merit.” It means a lot to have her see me, because she’s known me since I was a kid and essentially said, “you got this now.” I really appreciate that Merit is also helping to build my professional and leadership capacity now, because I want to continue to have an impact on young people in Chicago.
