19th District
SLATE:
Maurilio Garcia
Maurilio has been a Chicagoan for over 15 years, first attending Northwestern University and now residing in the Uptown neighborhood with his partner and three cats.
Maurilio has worked for a small market research and brand strategy firm for the last decade translating people’s needs and pain points into data-backed action plans for high profile clients. His projects have spanned across socially impactful subjects, including helping those living with HIV receive diagnoses & treatment to evaluating the value fraternities may or may not bring to a college campus. He is passionate about listening to what people experience and believe and does so via non-traditional communication methods like online surveys and focus groups.
He discovered his passion for helping his community by founding a pro-bono initiative through his employer that grants local Chicago non-profit organizations $50k worth of services to help better their community. This initiative is in its 5th year of existence and has already granted hundreds of thousands of dollars in assistance. Through this work, he has helped a range of organizations carry out their mission and values, inclusive of helping underserved CPS students attain their goal of attending college.
As a Mexican-American and coming from a family of immigrants, he intends to fight for and proudly represent marginalized communities in his district. Maurilio’s goal is to work to ensure that all 19th District residents’ feel supported by their community and that their experiences with policing are positive and productive.
Jenny Schaffer
My name is Jenny Schaffer. I am a mom to three kids who attend Chicago Public Schools. I started my career as a middle school special education teacher, advocating to ensure that my students' had what they needed to be successful and reach their full potential.
As a new mom, I became involved with a local nonprofit called Embarc. Embarc takes students out of their underserved neighborhood and exposes them to new experiences in the city. Raising my young children while working regularly with the Embarc students made me closely examine the two experiences. It became clear to me, the future outcomes of individuals depended on the support and access their community had. If we wanted to change outcomes and create safer neighborhoods we needed to invest in these communities just like we did in mine.
This new understanding led to work with organizations like EG Woode and THUG Hippie Bus to bring more resources to underserved communities. I founded the Antiracism Group at my kids’ school so that parents and caregivers in our community could learn, grow, and act together to deepen our antiracist practices. Additionally, I serve as the co-leader of the Public Safety Justice Team at my synagogue. As part of this team, we worked to pass ECPS.
I am campaigning alongside Maurilio Garcia and Sam Schoenburg. We will uplift innovative strategies that create safer neighborhoods.. We are strongly committed to bringing communities to the center of public safety and advocating for a modernized public safety system.
Samuel E. Schoenburg
I am running for District Council in Chicago’s 19th Police District to put the community’s voice at the center of public safety decision-making, and to make policing more accountable, fair, and effective. As a student at NYU Law, amid nationwide calls for police reform, I came to understand that policing is among the government institutions most shielded from genuine community input. After moving to Chicago, I joined the grassroots effort to create a new elected office focused specifically on bringing the community’s voice to public safety and policing: District Councils. Now that the new District Council position exists, the two candidates I’m running alongside—Maurilio Garcia and Jenny Schaffer—and I are committed to making sure it gets off to a strong start. We seek to modernize our public safety approach to include expanded emergency services with mental health and substance abuse crisis teams. We also aim to ensure needed policing reforms are implemented, and that officers have the resources to do their jobs responsibly and effectively.
I got involved in advocacy after high school as an organizer on Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. I later graduated from Yale University, and then worked for non-profit organizations dedicated to campaign finance reform and expanding health insurance access under the Affordable Care Act. In Chicago, I work as an attorney and am involved in social justice efforts with Cabrini Green Legal Aid and the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs. I live with my husband, Nigel, in Lakeview.
Endorsements: Alderman Matt Martin, Alderman Andre Vasquez, ONE People's Campaign, Lucy Moog, 43rd Ward Democratic Committeewoman, JCUA Votes