Bridget Gainer (born 1968/1969) is an American politician serving as a member of the

Cook County Board of Commissioners The Cook County Board of Commissioners is a legislative body made up of 17 commissioners who are elected by district, and a president who is elected county-wide, all for four-year terms. Cook County, which includes the City of Chicago, is the Uni ...

from the 10th district. She was appointed to the position in 2009.

Early life and education

Gainer was born and raised in the Beverly neighborhood on Chicago's south side. In 1990, she graduated from

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Unive ...

with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and political science. She later earned a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accou ...

from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

Career

Afterwards, she moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

to work as a community organizer with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. While in college, she worked as a cocktail waitress at Butch McGuire's on Division Street. She moved back to Chicago in 1994 to continue her work as community organizer to work with local community members to keep schools open later in the day for after-school programming. Gainer worked for then-Mayor

Richard M. Daley Richard Michael Daley (born April 24, 1942) is an American politician who served as the 54th mayor of Chicago, Illinois, from 1989 to 2011. Daley was elected mayor in 1989 and was reelected five times until declining to run for a seventh term ...

as a budget analyst in Chicago's City Hall. She then went on to work for the Park District as the director of the Lakefront Parks. Gainer later went on to join

Aon Aon or AON may refer to: * Aon (mythology), son of Poseidon in Greek mythology * ''Aon'' (moth), a genus of moths in the family Erebidae * Aon (trigraph), a Latin trigraph * "Aon", a composition by jazz pianist Harold Mabern, 1968 Business and ...

in a financial role.

Politics

Gainer was initially appointed to the

in April 2009 to replace former commissioner Mike Quigley, who won the special election to fill former Congressman Rahm Emanuel's seat when Emanuel left Congress to become White House Chief of Staff to

President Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

. She beat out other contenders, including openly gay lawyer Jay Paul Deratany, now Alderman Michele Smith, Quigley's former Chief of Staff Kim Walz,

Jim Madigan Jim Madigan (born August 5, 1962) is the current Athletic Director for Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU) is a private research university with its main campus in Boston. Established in 1898, the university offers undergrad ...

, former city attorney Sara Ellis,

Democratic National Committee The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the governing body of the United States Democratic Party. The committee coordinates strategy to support Democratic Party candidates throughout the country for local, state, and national office, as well ...

affiliated lawyer Robert Block, and electrician Michael Hickey. As commissioner she ensured the CCLBA works independently from the Cook County Board earning revenue from the property sales and reinvesting into the budget to provide an infrastructure to provide additional resources for first-time home buyers and small neighborhood developers. Since the program began, 400 homes have been purchased and rehabbed.^{/sup>

In 2015, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand

Kirsten Elizabeth Gillibrand (; ; born December 9, 1966) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the junior United States senator from New York since 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, she served as member of the U.S. House of ...
and Gainer founded a Chicago chapter of Off the Sidelines, a civic impact organization for women which gained over 3,000 members.^{/sup>

In 2017, Off the Sidelines Chicago was renamed Cause the Effect Chicago.^{/sup>

Personal life

Gainer is married to Dennis Kibby and has three children.^{/sup>

References

External links

* http://www.bridgetgainer.com/
* http://www.cookcountygov.com/

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gainer, Bridget
Illinois Democrats
Members of the Cook County Board of Commissioners
University of Chicago Booth School of Business alumni
University of Illinois alumni
Living people

1960s births
Year of birth uncertain}}}}