Conrad C. Nowak

The son of Polish immigrants, Mr. Nowak was raised in Chicago’s vibrant northwest-side Polish neighborhoods. After high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and served as a non-commissioned officer. He attended Northwestern University, DePaul University, and graduated with a law degree from Loyola University Chicago School of Law.  

Mr. Nowak’s commitment to immigrant issues and the Polish community drew him to the Polish American Association, the largest social welfare organization serving the vast Polish community in Chicago, He served on the Board of Directors for nearly a decade, including two terms as Chairman. He quickly joined other leaders in the Polish community representing Polish and immigrant issues, and began advocating for the rights and matters related to the Polish diaspora communities in Chicago and other parts of the country. Fusing this with his passion for veterans, he became a National Co-Chair of the Veterans Committee of the National Democratic Ethnic Coordinating Council. In 2016, he was honored to speak at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on the subject of the long-standing contribution of immigrants to U.S. national defense.

Mr. Nowak is also the former Chairman of the Board of Field Ready, an international NGO that has revolutionized humanitarian relief efforts through engineering teams dispatched throughout the world. Field Ready teams have deployed to many crisis areas including Haiti, Nepal, Syria, Iraq, the South Pacific and the US Virgin Islands. In 2016, President Barack Obama awarded the organization’s founders a “Champions of Change“ award, and in 2017, Ivanka Trump recognized Field Ready in her keynote address at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Hyderabad, India. The organization has been featured in The Guardian, MSNBC, Fast Company, France24, Wired, SkyNews and others.