CULTURETECHLENSCiera Bates-Chamberlain
VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)
Combined Graph record U-07524 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6338.
The Rev. Ciera Bates-Chamberlain is the founder and Executive Director of Live Free Illinois, which mobilizes Black churches and faith communities across Illinois to end gun violence and mass incarceration and to build safe, economically viable, self-sustained Black communities. The Obama Foundation named her a 2024–2025 USA Leader, crediting her with convening statewide clergy and nonprofit coalitions and developing violence-reduction and gun-violence and incarceration-reform programs. She was named to WVON's 40 Under 40 Game Changers Class of 2026.
Answer summary · this record in brief, from its own record text
The Rev. Ciera Bates-Chamberlain is the founder and Executive Director of Live Free Illinois, which mobilizes Black churches and faith communities across Illinois to end gun violence and mass incarceration and to build safe, economically viable, self-sustained Black communities. The Obama Foundation named her a 2024–2025 USA Leader, crediting her with convening statewide clergy and nonprofit coalitions and developing violence-reduction and gun-violence and incarceration-reform programs. She was named to WVON's 40 Under 40 Game Changers Class of 2026.
The record
- Also known as: Rev. Ciera Bates-Chamberlain
Notes
Organization edge: Live Free Illinois is not homed; founded/led edges BLOCKED until homed. Photo HELD: no Commons/LOC file located 2026-10-21.
Relationships
- WVON 40 Under 40 Game Changers — related to
Named to the WVON 40 Under 40 Game Changers Class of 2026 as Executive Director, Live Free Illinois.
Sources
- WVON 40 Under 40 Game Changers, 'The Class of 2026,' 40gamechangers.com/gamechangers (accessed 2026-10-21): lists Ciera Bates-Chamberlain as Executive Director, Live Free Illinois, among the 43 honorees named and pictured under the Class of 2026 heading. (primary source · build store)
- Live Free Illinois, staff page (accessed 2026-10-21): the Rev. Ciera Bates-Chamberlain as founder and Executive Director of the organization mobilizing Black churches to end gun violence and mass incarceration. (primary source · build store)
- The Obama Foundation, Leaders profile (accessed 2026-10-21): Bates-Chamberlain as a 2024–2025 USA Leader convening statewide clergy and nonprofit coalitions and developing violence-reduction programs. (primary source · build store)
More person records
Browse the full directory: all entity records
Record CTL-E-6338 · Combined Graph record U-07524 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 3 sources · 1 mapped relationship.
Directory: all entity records · the knowledge graph
Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.
Cite this record
Chicago: CultureTechLens. “Ciera Bates-Chamberlain (CTL-E-6338).” CultureTechLens Combined Graph. Chicago, IL: CultureTechLens, 2026. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-6338/
APA: CultureTechLens. (2026). Ciera Bates-Chamberlain (CTL-E-6338) [Entity record]. CultureTechLens Combined Graph. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-6338/
MLA: CultureTechLens. “Ciera Bates-Chamberlain (CTL-E-6338).” CultureTechLens Combined Graph, 2026, https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-6338/
Citation guidance for teachers, journalists, and funders: How to Cite Us.
From the Archive
The archive in pictures
The people, places, and institutions this work documents. Photographs from the CultureTechLens research record — rights-cleared, credited, and cited like everything else here.
Trust & evidence
Evidence before authority. CultureTechLens publishes its methods, its limits, and its corrections alongside its findings. Claims carry grades — VERIFIED, SUPPORTED, PROVISIONAL, DISPUTED, UNRESOLVED — and unknowns are never reported as zero.
Every claim graded. Every source named. Every correction public — see the corrections log.