Networking Lunch Facilitators
Lori Poppe Hiltabrand serves as Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel for the Chamber. Lori comes from 25 years in private practice litigating insurance defense, employment law, casualty and workers compensation matters. She began her career with Heyl, Royster in Springfield. She opened a Springfield office for Chicago-based Hennessy & Roach. For the past 18 years, Lori has been with Koepke & Hiltabrand, PC. In addition to her duties as COO for the Chamber, Lori will use her litigation background to develop Legal Reform division within the Chamber. This will allow the Chamber to focus on bills supported by the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association that are negative to businesses in Illinois and to seek to advocate changes to positively impact Illinois businesses.
Illinois State Representative Regan Deering was sworn into the 104th General Assembly as a State Representative in January 2025. Deering represents the 88th District which includes parts of DeWitt, Macon, McLean, and Piatt counties, in central Illinois.
Before serving as a state legislator, Regan worked as an educator, teaching science to elementary school students in Chicago. Delving further into her passion for education, Regan became a small business owner, operating a tutoring and test prep location of the educational franchise Huntington Learning Center, in her hometown of Decatur.
Having a passion for education and being a community advocate, she is serving on the Mt. Zion Community Unit School District’s school board and has volunteered as the Chair of the Decatur Public Schools Foundation. Deering also served as the Board President for Northeast Community Fund, a social service center in Decatur focusing on uplifting families by compassionately connecting them with resources and services. Regan has been a mentor in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program since 2017.
Rep. Deering holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Duke University in North Carolina and a Master of Education (MEd) from DePaul University.