Lori Lightfoot

Lori Lightfoot served as Chicago's mayor from 2019-2023. She is the second woman, first Black female and first openly gay person in that role. Before becoming mayor, Lightfoot served as senior equity partner in the Litigation and Conflict Resolution Group at Mayer Brown. Before that, she was President of the Chicago Police Board and Chair of the Police Accountability Task Force. Among other prominent roles in the city, Mayor Lightfoot also served as an Assistant US Attorney. She has been a resident of Chicago since 1986.

Since leaving office, Mayor Lightfoot has served as a 2023 Senior Leadership Fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health where she is teaching a course on leadership and key decision-making in public health.

In fall 2024 Lightfoot will co-teach a strategic public policy consulting class with Jeffrey Morenoff. The course will pair graduate students with social impact not-for-profit organizations in Chicago and Michigan to solve challenges those groups are facing in the delivery of services in their respective communities.

She received a BA from the University of Michigan and a JD from the University of Chicago Law School.