Meet your candidates

Kevin has lived in Champaign since 2016 with his wife, Amanda, son, Liam, and daughter, Molly. He was born and raised in Hewitt, NJ. After receiving a culinary degree from a Le Cordon Blue accredited institution, he worked in high-end restaurants across the country in Portland, OR, Austin, TX, and the Washington DC metro area.

Currently, Kevin is a chef preparing meals for fraternities and sororities at the University of Illinois and works part-time at Hamilton Walkers, a steakhouse in downtown Champaign. In his free time, Kevin volunteers as a coach for his kids’ youth sports teams and serves as a board member for the Champaign-Urbana Little League. His hobbies include walking the family’s two rescue dogs, Eugene and Jersey, playing basketball, golfing, fishing, building LEGO, doing puzzles, and spending time with his family.

Leah moved to the area in 2004 with her husband, James. They started their family a few years later, and have one daughter who recently graduated from Centennial. Leah’s educational background is in software development, with another degree most recently from the Parkland Occupational Therapy Assistant Program. Since the age of 15, she has worked at everything: fast food, dry-cleaning, assembly lines, IT support, and software development.

In 2018 Leah ran for office for the first time and won - as the District 5 Champaign County Board Democratic candidate. She handily won re-election in 2022, but drew the 2-year short straw. During Leah’s time on the board she served on the Facilities committee, Highway committee, was elected Democratic caucus chair for 4 years, and was selected to chair the Justice & Social Services committee for 4 years.

Leah looks forward to bringing her diverse experience to work for the Township.

Sanford has worked with local governments for 30 years. For 20 he was a systems analyst helping states, counties, and cities with financial system replacements, and then the past 10 years as the City of Urbana’s IT Manager. 

Sanford has also run a small business (The Art Theater) and is now an independent consultant for government IT. He has Board experience with both government and non-profit organizations, including time as both Treasurer and Chair. Sanford lives in Ironwood with his wife, Elizabeth, and credits his son Eli – a UIUC student – with making sports fandom fun again. 

Alan was born and raised in Mars, PA. He graduated from and worked at the University of Pittsburgh in the 1990s, and spent 12 years working in educational and reference publishing in New York City, including a stint as Editor-in-Chief of The World Almanac. 

In 2009, Alan moved to Champaign-Urbana to work for Wolfram Research, where he currently serves as Director of Content Development for Wolfram|Alpha. He lives in Glenshire with his wife of 24 years, their two teenage children, and two dogs. He's an avid reader and long-distance runner. 

Rob has lived most of his life in Champaign, growing up here in the 1960’s. After receiving a PhD in physics from M.I.T. in 1978, he worked in various areas of physics and engineering before returning to Champaign to take control of his family’s business, building and selling telemetry antennas. He left the antenna business in 2012 to serve as business manager and computer specialist for the Center for Innovation and Learning at the University of Illinois until his retirement in 2018. 

Since retirement, Rob served as president of Sinai Temple (2017-2019) and has been active in various progressive community organizations. He also tutors young people at his Temple. His favorite hobbies include languages, puzzles of all kinds, traveling, and hiking. 

Jessica is an attorney and former prosecutor from Texas who currently works as a software engineer in Champaign. After attending college in upstate New York, she returned to Texas for her law degree. She lived all over the U.S. and in Sweden before happily settling in Champaign in 2023 with her partner and three cats. 

Jessica is a strong believer in public service and the power of community, which was a large part of why she and her partner chose Champaign-Urbana as their home. In her free time, she enjoys puzzles and games of all sorts, reading, and going to live music and theater around town.