Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has chosen a former teacher and head of a prominent parents advocacy group to lead the Board of Education — part of Johnson’s near-total restructuring of the school board ahead of its transition to an elected panel.
Johnson, himself a former educator and organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union, announced Wednesday that he’s chosen as his school board head Jianan Shi, the executive director of the nonprofit Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education.
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Also appointed to the board was Rudy Lozano Jr., who is the son of a slain activist and is a community leader with a background in youth mentorship who has run for the state House. The other new board members named Wednesday are Mariela Estrada, director of community engagement at the United Way of Metro Chicago who formerly worked for the city’s inspector’s general’s office and the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council; Michelle Morales, president of the Woods Fund Chicago, former associate director of the Alternative Schools Network and a longtime community organizer; Tanya D. Woods, executive director of the nonprofit legal aid clinic the Westside Justice Center; and special education advocate Mary Fahey Hughes.