It’s important to me that there’s a lot of us at the table,” said Alexandra Sims, president and founder of APS & Associates. Since 2016, she has owned and run the one-stop shop for campaigns, including crisis management. Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx is a client, as is the Obama Foundation.

Sims said she wants to see more Black involvement in the field, which is why she’s co-organizer of Black Bench Chicago, a training program for the next generation of Black public affairs leaders.

“The Bench is about us, as millennials, stepping into some of these leadership positions,” she said. “Those are roles that we should be in. There’s a group of us that are Black that work in this work. We compare notes a lot.”

She talked about making sure no one forgets the Jan. 6 invasion of the U.S. Capitol by rioters: “I think what commonly happens is we see some blatant racism, we see white supremacy, we see inequities. And as America, we want to cover it up. I think this new day, we can’t cover it up if we want to move forward. That’s really important to me as we move forward, especially for my generation to call things what they are and try to right those wr