Denean Pillar-Jackson is a Senior Policy Associate with CSW’s Trauma and Resilience at Work Team. She supports efforts to embed trauma-informed, resilience-building, and healing-centered strategies into workplace systems, leadership development, and mental health frameworks—helping public agencies and employers across the country reimagine workplace culture as a source of well-being, equity, and high performance. Her current work includes leading statewide initiatives to strengthen mental health infrastructure, expand employer capacity, and co-develop policy-informed strategies that promote resilience and psychological safety across sectors.
Denean has more than 18 years of workforce development leadership, including 11 years at Year Up Chicago, where she collaborated with over 300 leaders nationwide to successfully place more than 1,200 young adults in internships at major corporations. As founder of Teachone Wellness and the founding Executive Director of the Chicago Resiliency Network, she has guided employers, nonprofit organizations, and educational institutions across Chicago in implementing trauma-informed practices that support frontline and mid-level talent. Her work is grounded in her deep commitment to “Dignity in Employment” and integrates brain science, emotional intelligence, and somatic healing to help organizations build cultures of care, stability, belonging and performance.
Denean is a 2016 Civic Leadership Academy Fellow at the University of Chicago. She holds an M.S. in Finance and Financial Markets from the Illinois Institute of Technology and a B.S. in Finance from Hampton University. Denean is a 26-year wellness professional and a 200 -hour Yoga Alliance registered instructor, with additional training in trauma informed yoga, breathing techniques from the Art of Living Foundation, and certifications in Mental Health First Aid and somatic principles.