Current Climate and Environmental Bills: How You Can Advocate
Fellow League member and Illinois environmental lobbyist Jen Walling will discuss state climate and environmental legislation and speak directly to the bills LWV Chicago will be advocating for with our Chicago-area state senators and representatives in the 2025 legislative session.
Bills will include clean energy and transportation, eliminating unnecessary single-use plastics, protecting Illinois wetlands and more. Information about actions that individual members can take will be provided.
About the Speaker
Jen Walling has served as the Executive Director for the Illinois Environmental Council since January of 2011, where she oversees the strategic direction and management of the organization and lobbies decision makers on environmental issues. Jen is dedicated to building the power of Illinois’ environmental community to secure policy outcomes that protect the environment.
Jen holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She also received a juris doctorate from the University of Illinois College of Law and is an attorney licensed to practice law in Illinois.
LWV Chicago’s series of Briefings seeks to inform members about current issues and present avenues for action.
Briefing | 2024 General Election
Join us to learn all about voting in Chicago’s General Election on November 5, 2024. Be prepared to vote yourself and to help your friends, family and neighbors navigate this election.
Briefing | Chicago’s Elected School Board
Join us to hear from Becky Vevea, Bureau Chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Becky will be addressing Chicago school issues, including the new elected school board.
Chicago Public Schools (CPS) will begin the transition to an elected school board with the General Election on November 5, 2024, when half of the Board members will be elected.
About the Speaker
Becky Vevea is the Bureau Chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization committed to covering one of America's most important stories: the effort to improve schools for all children. She previously spent a decade with WBEZ reporting on city police and schools.
Briefing | Election Protection
Agnes Gray of Common Cause Illinois will join us to present on Election Protection, the coalition that ensures that all voters have an equal opportunity to vote and that their vote counts. You know their hotline 866-OUR VOTE; find out what else we can do together to help! We'll hear about plans for the November election and how we can participate.
Made up of more than 300 local, state and national partners, the national, nonpartisan Election Protection coalition uses a wide range of tools and activities to protect the right to vote, including year-round voter hotlines, on-the-ground nonpartisan poll watchers, and post-election observers who ensure that all votes are properly counted.
About the Speaker
Agnes Gray is the Community Engagement Organizer for Common Cause Illinois. Agnes’ voter advocacy and education work began with fielding phone calls for the Election Protection Network and reporting issues that voters in her home state of Tennessee experienced at the polls during the 2016 presidential election.
Before relocating to Chicago to join Common Cause Illinois, she engaged in dynamic coalition building and community outreach initiatives, spearheading Common Cause Georgia’s robust Election Protection field program during the 2022 and 2023 election cycles.
Prior to Common Cause, Agnes fought for fair maps as a student researcher for the Tennessee NAACP and Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law's Tennessee Participatory Redistricting Project.
Briefing | Truth Matters: Tools To Fight Election Mis- and Disinformation
Join LWV Chicago and LWV Cook County to learn how to identify and combat election misinformation and disinformation in our local communities. Barb Laimins and Anne Sullivan, co-chairs of the LWV Illinois Mis/Disinformation Task Force, will present the toolkits and educational materials the Task Force has developed and take your questions and suggestions.
Speakers
Barb Laimins joined the League of Women Voters of Wheaton in 2014. She has served as voter service chair and League president, and instituted a LWV Wheaton Civic Education Committee. A past LWVIL board member, she currently serves on the LWVIL Membership Committee, the LWVIL Issues and Advocacy Committee, and is the LWVIL representative on an Illinois General Assembly Task Force to study the implementation of Ranked Choice Voting in Illinois. Barb is also on the planning board for LWV/National Institute for Civic Discourse.
Anne Sullivan joined the League of Women Voters of Wilmette board of directors in 2017, where she chaired Voter Services and Communications and served as an Advocacy Chair for DEI initiatives and Fair Elections. She was co-president in 2022 and 2023. She is also Wilmette's representative on the LWV Cook County Board of Directors.
To address the troubling rise of misinformation and disinformation—and its impact on our elections—the League of Women Voters of Illinois formed the Mis/Disinformation Task Force in January 2024 with the goal of educating the general public on mis/disinformation.
Briefing | UN Commission on the Status of Women
The sixty-eighth session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women took place March 11–22, 2024. LWV Chicago President Jane Ruby served as a delegate for LWVUS at the session. Learn about what happened at the conference and how it connects with the League’s work!
About CSW
Representatives of Member States, UN entities, and ECOSOC-accredited non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from all regions of the world were invited to contribute to the session.
Priority theme: Accelerating the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective.
Review theme: Social protection systems, access to public services and sustainable infrastructure for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls (agreed conclusions of the sixty-third session).
Briefing | 2024 Primary Election
Join us to learn all about voting in Chicago’s Primary Election on March 19, 2024.
Briefing | League 101
Saturday Briefings are back! To kick off the 2023–24 season, we'll give a breakdown of the League of Women Voters—what do we do and how can you be involved?
The Zoom will open at 9:30 am for social time.
Briefing | 2023 Municipal Election
Join us to learn all about voting in Chicago’s Municipal Election on February 28, 2023. Candidates will vie for all 53 Chicago elected offices, plus three positions in each of the 22 Police Districts.
Briefing | Municipal Election Candidate Forums
Chicago’s next Municipal Election is February 28, 2023. Candidates will vie for all 53 Chicago elected offices, plus up to 66 positions on District Councils of the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA).
Join us to learn everything you need to know about the League’s plans for Municipal Election candidate forums.
Briefing | 2022 General Election
Learn everything you need to know about voting ahead of the November 8 General Election!
A panel of League experts will join us to discuss the positions on the ballot, where and when to vote, activities for members, and more.
This Briefing is presented by LWV Chicago’s Voter Service Committee.
Briefing | League 101
Saturday Briefings are back! We hold these regularly on the second Saturday of the month. To kick off the 2022–23 season, we'll give a breakdown of the League of Women Voters—what do we do and how can you be involved?
The Zoom will open at 9:30 am for social time.
Briefing | 2022 Primary Election
Learn everything you need to know about voting ahead of the June 28 Primary Election!
Our guest presenter is Max Bever, Director of Public Information for the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners.
A panel of League experts will also join us to discuss the positions on the ballot, where and when to vote, activities for members, and more.
This Briefing is presented by LWV Chicago’s Voter Service Committee.