The 14-year-old who nervously walked into her first interview more than four decades ago is today the President at the Lake County Chamber of Commerce. Shaunese Teamer is a leader who has risen to every challenge with adaptability and creativity, turning roadblocks into new paths to success. From her 22-year career in public television to her leadership of the chamber, she has built a reputation for connecting businesses, communities and the people they serve.
Shaunese, who has led the chamber for more than a decade, believes leadership is about investing in people. “Every connection we make today can have a lasting impact tomorrow,” she says. “Sometimes even the smallest changes can make the greatest impact.”
The First Interview
In 1978, when Shaunese was in eighth grade, she was identified as an outstanding student and became a candidate for a Citizenship Award. Her middle school sent a letter home from the Chicago Public School District asking her mother to accompany her to an interview at another school. Shaunese was one of only three students among 600 at her middle school chosen for the honor. She still remembers the day of the interview vividly.
The youngest of six children, Shaunese was raised by a single mother who could not take off from work. An older sister accompanied her to what would be the first interview of her life.
“I was a little nervous as I was led into the school library office where five CPS district representatives seated around a long wooden table proceeded to introduce themselves before questioning me about myself, my family, hobbies, siblings, and my career goals for the future,” she recalls.
Even at that age, Shaunese knew the career path she wanted, and she talked about it during the interview. However, every time she thinks back to that experience, she asks herself the same question: who was it, and what was it that they saw in her at the age of 14 to recommend her for a Citizenship Award?
By that age, she had worked at the McCormick Chicago Boys Club during their summer CETA program. She participated and volunteered in various club programs that welcomed girls to be involved. At the time, girls had limited opportunities to take part in afternoon and evening programs, and the club’s primary activities were still available only to boys. Shaunese’s family became one of the first associated with the club’s transition to welcoming girls as members, and her older sister Jackie was among the first female counselors hired there.
Shaunese soon followed. Her first job was as an afterschool counselor leading mostly young boys. Some of the boys were nine and ten years old, and as she recalled, were taller than her. Not much older than they were, a few were often reluctant to take direction from a girl so close in age, but she was mature enough for the challenge.
“This period of time working as a counselor for students three years younger than I was a true learning experience on what was needed to be an effective leader at a young age,” Shaunese says.
Experience in Media
Blossoming from an early career working with youth in her community, Teamer quickly realized she was on the right path. Over the years, she would build a passionate career centered in community outreach, working with schools, developing strategic initiatives to support business growth, and addressing the evolving needs of families. Her journey positioned her as a dedicated team leader in an industry driven by a powerful mission: to educate, inform, and entertain while creating meaningful connections and positive community impact.
Before graduating from college, Shaunese was offered a position in the field of television at WTTW PBS Chicago where she worked for almost 25 years. Teamer had landed an opportunity to work in the field of public television during a period when the network became known for some of its most significant anchor programs. She was one of the first marketing managers to forge PBS Chicago’s new marketing initiatives across multi-media platforms. She developed partnerships with cultural institutions, corporations, and financial institutions seeking to expand their visibility and mission through an ever-growing catalog of award-winning television programs.
“My journey along this path provided a collective overview of developing partnerships with businesses and working in tandem to create and develop new programming that would enhance stronger business and community connections,” she says.
While building her career in public relations, Shaunese promoted nationally recognized public television personalities and programs, including Rick Bayless of Mexico One Plate at a Time, Bill Kurtis of The New Explorers with Bill Kurtis and Shari Lewis of Lamb Chop’s Play-Along. In addition, she developed relationships with community and corporate partners across the industry.
Now, as President at the Lake County Chamber of Commerce, she identifies opportunities to support business growth through engagement and community outreach.
Turning Challenges into Opportunities
Shaunese sees challenges as opportunities in disguise. “The best way to address a challenge is to expect it and be flexible,” she says. “As a leader, being resilient, thoughtful, and composed ensures you can effectively guide your team.”
Equipped with that mindset and her media experience, Shaunese ensured the Lake County Chamber of Commerce thrived when business networking across the county came to a screeching halt during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The chamber hosts networking events throughout the year, and one luncheon was just three days away when Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker announced that gatherings of more than 100 people should be canceled immediately. With no time to waste, Shaunese quickly developed and implemented a response plan. She led the chamber’s efforts to contact registered attendees with alternative arrangements. Additionally, she engaged the chamber’s Board of Directors in a strategic plan to offer Zoom meetings to members, supporting a continual schedule of networking engagement and communication.
Over the next year, she utilized this same format to host interviews with leading business figures, bringing local communication to members and the community on the topics that concerned them most. The first episode of the COVID-19: Conversations from the Frontline series, also called Chamber Chats, aimed to address rising local COVID-19 issues by fostering dialogue through virtual community engagement. For example, a recorded Zoom interview with a regional bank president provided members with an opportunity to learn more about PPP loans and how banks were handling loan application requests. One of the most popular Zoom interviews featured a full discussion on taxes and how filings would take place due to the pandemic.
Within the first months of developing visual content on Zoom to share with members, consumers, and viewers on social media, the chamber began production on what would become one of the first television documentaries to be entirely produced on Zoom.
Shaunese points out that Youth & the Coronavirus: Getting the Point Across, was a 30-minute virtual documentary with bonus content. The interview format gave voice to youth ages 5-19, inviting them to ask questions about the pandemic, which were answered by business professionals and members of the Lake County Chamber of Commerce.
Support from Comcast, which broadcast the documentary throughout Lake County, greatly expanded its viewing audience. The reach qualified the film for entry into the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Chicago/Midwest Regional Emmy Awards during the 2020–2021 competition season.
Shaunese produced, directed, and narrated the documentary in association with her production company, True Quarantine Productions. The project also featured the talents of her three sons, Shaun, Kravon and Destin. Kravon, a producer and audio engineer, served as a producer and project editor, while Shaun, a graphic designer and award-winning producer of the web series Media Team Go, designed the program logo and opening graphics. And, Destin, who is trained in theater, various vocal techniques and voice over, provided an opening Spanish language presentation.
“At a time when families across America were quarantined, this documentary allowed us to pool our talents to support the information needs of our Lake County community,” Shaunese says.
Five years later, in November 2025, Shaunese launched Podcast Lake County, a new marketing platform for the chamber. The podcast provides interviews with chamber members, giving listeners an expanded opportunity to go beyond the elevator pitch and learn more about the development and growth of businesses and business leaders throughout Lake County.
An Emmy Award-Winning Documentary
As Director of Revenue & Development at WYCC PBS Chicago, Shaunese was responsible not only for determining fundraising opportunities, but also for developing corporate partnerships, engaging cultural institutions throughout Chicagoland, and identifying community organizations to support the development of new television programming.
In early 2014, after a chance meeting with a former colleague, Mary Pat Cross, who served as a project manager for the Cook County Forest Preserves, Shaunese learned that they were planning for the 100th anniversary of the preserves. “I immediately recommended that WYCC PBS Chicago capture the amazing, rich history of the preserves in a documentary,” she says.
Over the next few weeks, Shaunese researched and developed a proposal that was presented to the Cook County Forest Preserves Board and, ultimately, to County Board President Toni Preckwinkle for approval. With the board’s support and a commitment to complete the project over the next year, she and her team produced the hour-long documentary, Chicago’s True Nature: The Forest Preserves of Cook County. The following year, the documentary earned a Chicago/Midwest Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Informational/Instructional Programming.
The project explores nearly 70,000 acres of preserved natural lands in Cook County. It showcases ancient prairies, wetlands, the diverse flora and fauna, conservation initiatives, and recreational activities found within one of the nation’s largest urban forest preserve systems.
“With completion of the documentary,” Shaunese says, “I was also able to obtain financial support to have a copy placed within every Chicago Public Library for generations to enjoy.”
Networking Is the Key for Business Growth
Chamber of commerce organizations have always followed the mantra, “Networking is the key.” Shaunese considers developing business-to-business networking opportunities a primary initiative focused on supporting business growth through face-to-face interaction and exchange.
In order to encourage cross-industry networking, it is important to identify purpose-driven connections around topics and resources crucial for community and economic growth. According to Shaunese, developing programming that shares rare access to content across various platforms can be essential for supporting community leadership growth and knowledge sharing while cultivating strategic partnerships.
Teamer’s commitment to public service has been shaped by a transformative record of civic and community leadership. She served as an elected official and was appointed by the Illinois State Board of Education to provide leadership on a local school board, where she dedicated nine years to advancing the educational needs of students, families, and the broader community.
Her commitment to community development also led to eight years of service as a board member of the Lake County Community Foundation. In 2001, she was selected to participate in the Illinois Women’s Institute for Leadership (IWIL), a distinguished leadership program founded by Loretta Durbin following discussions at the 2000 Democratic National Convention.
Teamer’s civic contributions have been recognized throughout her career. In 2004, 26 years after being nominated for a Citizenship Award at the age of 14, Shaunese was honored with the Most Influential African American Award for Civic Leadership in Lake County, presented by The People’s Voice. The recognition reflected a lifelong commitment to civic engagement, leadership, education, and strengthening the communities she serves.
Years ago, Shaunese had the opportunity to meet Robert D. Putnam, author of Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, in which he cites primary reasons why communities fail to thrive. “Putnam warned that our stock of social capital, the very fabric of our connections with each other, had plummeted, impoverishing our lives and communities,” Shaunese shares.
She adds that not only are chamber organizations focused on building social capital by supporting business-to-business connections, they are also guided by the value of building business-to-consumer connections.
At the Lake County Chamber of Commerce, businesses are trained in what Shaunese calls broadband networking. The process helps business leaders advance beyond one-on-one networking. It also encourages them to develop a strategy to expand their business connections through enhanced company connections.
Broadband networking allows leaders to seek new opportunities to promote their businesses across an expanded broadband networking continuum. They can provide business services to employees and those consumers who may not have the opportunity to participate in monthly chamber networking initiatives. With this formula, new products and services are presented to potential customers across a new networking platform.
Almost 20 years ago, the Lake County Chamber of Commerce established the Hispanic Chamber of Lake County as an affiliate. Its mission is to identify and serve the needs of Hispanic businesses and function as an economic, educational, and informational catalyst, a process that empowers the Hispanic business community so that it may provide the quality services necessary for the socioeconomic improvement of Lake County.
Today, the Hispanic Chamber of Lake County continues to expand its connections within the community. It helps emerging businesses as they encounter regulations and procedures affecting their progress throughout the year.
Role of Mentorship
Mentorship, Shaunese believes, is one of the most influential tools for developing effective leadership. It has played an instrumental role in her career. She entered the television industry because of a college mentor who recognized her talent and interest in journalism. During her freshman summer, she was guided toward either a journalism position with a local newspaper or an internship with television station WTTW PBS Chicago. Following her internship and graduation, she worked at WTTW for 22 years.
As Manager of Community Outreach and National Publicity, Shaunese also led the station’s initiative to partner with a City of Chicago program that provided mentor and internship opportunities for students aging out of the foster care system.
“The wisdom of mentors that I communicate with regularly has been a guiding light in understanding the factors that can become essential turning points in meeting the needs of Lake County communities,” Shaunese says.
She also believes leadership begins at home. As a wife and mother of three sons, she has always focused on sharing her knowledge and professional experiences with her children. She has collaborated with them on numerous marketing and production projects. Currently, her son Kravon serves as the production engineer for Podcast Lake County.
Not many people know that Shaunese was an All-City All-Star basketball player who was offered a four-year, full athletic scholarship. Her experience in sports—competing in basketball, volleyball, and softball—became an important foundation for the leader she would become.
“Playing sports in high school taught me a great deal about myself and the importance of working as a team,” Shaunese reflects. “I learned that success is rarely achieved alone. It requires trust, discipline, communication, and a commitment to the people working alongside you.”
She also credits her coach and mentor, Neil Codell, with helping her recognize her natural leadership abilities. Through his guidance, she learned to observe situations carefully, understand the strengths of those around her, and approach challenges with determination. Those lessons helped her develop what would become a defining leadership philosophy: observe, understand, and conquer.
The lessons learned on the court and playing field would ultimately extend far beyond athletics, providing Shaunese with the confidence, teamwork, resilience, and leadership skills that would shape her professional and community career.
Advice for Aspiring Leaders
Shaunese believes that reaching a level of success in leadership does not always mean making a massive impact at every stage of the game. She tells aspiring leaders, “You need to continuously make inroads that support your personal journey as you enhance the journey of others.”
The Legacy
Shaunese’s career has been full of highlights, but she wants to be remembered for what she made possible for others.
“If any of my work has encouraged the development of new business partnerships; working relationships; new programming; the start of a business; new job opportunities, or encouraged someone to become a better business leader,” she says, “then I feel that my legacy of impacting future generations has been made.”
