Maria Elaine Hadden is a Chicago politician and community activist. She is a member of Chicago City Council, serving as alderman for the city's 49th ward. She won election to that office after defeating 28-year incumbent Joe Moore in the 2019 aldermanic elections. The 49th ward includes most of Rogers Park and portions of West Ridge.
Hadden was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1981. She earned her bachelor's degree in International Peace and Conflict Studies from the Ohio State University, and subsequently moved to Waukegan, Illinois to begin a job with the AmeriCorps VISTA program in 2003. She moved to Chicago in 2004. She later earned a master's degree in International Public Service Management from DePaul University.
Before becoming Alderwoman, Maria Hadden was the Executive Director of Our City Our Voice, a national nonprofit organization she founded to enable communities and governments across the country to redesign democracy for more empowered and equitable participation. Her expertise in public participation is grounded in grassroots organizing efforts for social change.
Before launching her own organization, Maria was a founding board member of The Participatory Budgeting Project, where she worked for 8 years with communities and government officials in the Midwest and South to create and facilitate democratic processes around public budgets. In this role, Maria has also worked with Aldermen throughout Chicago to design participatory budgeting processes around Aldermanic menu money, school budgets and TIF funds.
Maria lives with her partner, Natalia, and their two rescue dogs in Rogers Park. She enjoys living in a place where neighbors are friends and community is family - and she is proud of her community's resilience and motivation to work together in difficult situations. In her free time Maria is a photographer and artist who leads screenprinting workshops for young people.
Recommendations:
The Confidence Game Book by Maria Konnikova
Oh Hey, and I'm Marina. I am a technologist, mom, podcast host, leadership coach, cruciverbalist and aquarian ;)
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