Opportunity grows when community moves together.

Oloye Ifatola Tifase, widely known as Chief Tola, is a Chicago based community leader, entrepreneur, educator, textile artist, cultural advocate, ordained minister, and breast cancer survivor. She is the Founder and President of Forward Together Foundation, created to connect families with food assistance, mentorship, cultural and educational programs, community resources, and transformative learning experiences.

Her professional journey reflects decades of service. She worked as a Chicago Police dispatcher and later as an officer with the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, gaining firsthand understanding of crisis response, public safety, and the challenges families face. She later brought that experience into healthcare outreach through home health and hospice liaison roles that deepened her commitment to compassionate care, education, and dependable resources. She studied at Northeastern Illinois University’s Center for Inner City Studies and Chicago State University, grounding her work in urban community life, leadership, and lifelong learning.

As founder of Tola’s Creations Botanica, Wellness and Cultural Center, she has built a Black owned Chicago space for culturally rooted wellness, community education, spiritual services, and hands on learning. She has organized workshops and public programs focused on ancestral knowledge, spiritual hygiene, women’s wellness, breast cancer awareness, domestic violence education, and community healing. Surviving breast cancer strengthened her commitment to early detection, personal advocacy, and creating spaces where people can seek help without shame.

Chief Tola’s cultural leadership is also expressed through the arts and Traditional African spirituality. She is a chief within the Egungun tradition, an Iyanifa, and a priestess of Oya. Her regular travel to Nigeria supports continuing study, cultural exchange, and direct participation in traditional programs and education. A textile artist who has also danced with community organizations, she understands art, movement, cloth, ceremony, and storytelling as ways communities preserve memory and identity. As a wife and mother of three, she brings family and lived experience to her leadership. Through Forward Together Foundation, she is turning a lifetime of service, resilience, creativity, and cultural knowledge into organized action that helps people move forward together.