Anton Seals Jr.

Lead Steward,
Grow Greater Englewood
—
L. Anton Seals Jr. is a South Shore Chicago, IL native. Seals is a multidimensional servant leader, organizer, entrepreneur, educator, community and political strategist and impact producer.

Blending his varied interest Seals has worked with philanthropic, political leadership, corporate, and community based organizations to focus on authentic "equity in action" via community engagement, advocacy/policy and social enterprise development. Seals also works in the arts and cultural space, producing campaigns for feature documentaries

Anton is the co-founder and Lead Steward (Executive Director) of Grow Greater Englewood (GGE) Transforming vacant city lots into farm businesses, via a network of Black and brown urban farmers. Building a social enterprise focusing on building an equitable and resilient local food system that fosters protections of vacant land in Black divested communities. Working at the intersection of Urban Agriculture and Environmental Justice, GGE is currently developing an Agro-Eco District centering Black residents and preserving Black culture, anchored by the Englewood Nature Trail.

As an entrepreneur in 2019, Anton founded Organic Urban Revitalization Solutions (OURS) a cannabis processing and logsitics company, with products currently being sold across the state of Illinois.

Anton is also a trained facilitator in Asset Based community development (ABCD) institute trainer located at DePaul University. Anton is a 2018 Next City Vanguard Fellow and 2010 German Marshall Fellow.

Seals serves as a Chair of the Woods Fund of Chicago, also serves on National Board for the Trust for Public Land, also several other boards in Chicago. Seals has advised and counsels other organizers and activist, political and civic leaders, corporate and philanthropic organizations on pushing for a more racially just society.

Anton lives in South Shore with his wife Amissah and son Anton III.

Breakout Panelist: Nourishing Communities with Nature