Linda Lenz founded Catalyst Chicago, a nonprofit magazine devoted to public education in the city that began publishing after the passage of a state law which gave more power to parents and local educators.
In late 1989, Lenz left the Sun-Times to start Catalyst Chicago, which was published nine times a year by the nonprofit Community Renewal Society. The publication’s first issue rolled off the presses in February 1990, and Lenz, its editor, added the role of publisher in 1994. Former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who was CEO of CPS from 2001 until 2009, called Lenz “a thoughtful reporter who asked the right questions, the hard questions, without any bias. She just wanted to get to the core of issues — she cared about the truth, and she cared about children.”