Maria Pappas is a Greek American attorney and politician who has served as the Cook County Treasurer since 1998. Prior to that, she served two terms on 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, Illinois, Cook County, which includes the City ...

; first as one of ten members elected from

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

and then, after the board moved to single-member constituencies, as the member from the 10th district.

Early life

Pappas was born June 7, 1949, in Warwood, a neighborhood of

Wheeling, West Virginia Wheeling is a city in Ohio County, West Virginia, Ohio and Marshall County, West Virginia, Marshall counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia. The county seat of Ohio County, it lies along the Ohio River in the foothills of the Appalachian Mo ...

, to first generation

Greek American Greek Americans ( ''Ellinoamerikanoí'' ''Ellinoamerikánoi'' ) are Americans of full or partial Greek ancestry. There is an estimate of 1.2 million Americans of full or partial Greek ancestry. According to the US census, 264,066 people o ...

parents. She earned a bachelor's degree in sociology from West Liberty State College and a master's degree in counseling at

West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia, United States. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Ins ...

. She then relocated to Chicago to work at the Adler Institute with

Rudolf Dreikurs Rudolf Dreikurs (February 8, 1897, ViennaMay 25, 1972, Chicago) was an Austrian psychiatrist and educator who developed psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, ...

. She earned her Ph.D. from Loyola University in 1976. While a doctoral student, she received a state grant to work with mothers at Altgeld Garden Homes. She then taught at

Governors State University Governors State University (Governors State, GSU, GovState, or GOVST) is a public university in University Park, Illinois, United States. The campus is located south of Chicago, Illinois. GovState was founded in 1969. It is a public universi ...

until switching to the legal field; graduating from Chicago Kent College of Law at the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1982.

Political career

Pappas chose to run for one of ten positions elected at large from the City of Chicago. She received the first spot on the ballot and won. While a member of the Cook County Board, she had a political rivalry with then Board President Richard Phelan. She ran for the Democratic nomination to succeed Phelan as Board President in 1994. She lost to fellow board member

John Stroger John H. Stroger Jr. (May 19, 1929January 18, 2008) was an American politician who served from 1994 until 2006 as the first African-American president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners (the primary executive officer of Cook County, Illi ...

in a three-way race that also included County Clerk Aurelia Pucinski. In

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

, she was elected Cook County Treasurer. In her first year, she tripled the amount of interest earned by the Treasurer's office and uncovered a scam run by her predecessor Edward J. Rosewell. Rosewell resigned as Treasurer after being convicted for his role in a ghost payroll scheme. She has been re-elected six times:

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

and

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

. As Treasurer, she was the chief proponent of the Cook County Debt Disclosure Ordinance, passed in 2009, which requires taxing districts to publicly report their finances, including pension debt. She ran for United States Senate in 2004, losing the Democratic nomination to

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

. She explored a run for Mayor of Chicago in

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

, but chose not to run. After

Rahm Emanuel Rahm Israel Emanuel (; born November 29, 1959) is an American politician, advisor, diplomat, and former investment banker who most recently served as List of ambassadors of the United States to Japan, United States ambassador to Japan from 2022 ...

announced he would not seek reelection, Pappas considered running for Mayor of Chicago in

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, but ultimately did not run. Since 2020, Pappas has hosted a live radio program on

WVON WVON (1690 AM "The Voice of the Nation", originally "Voice of the Negro") is a radio station serving the Chicago market, which airs an African-American-oriented talk format. WVON is operated by Midway Broadcasting Corporation via a local mark ...

, ''Black Houses Matter'', to encourage taxpayers to claim overpaid property taxes. In 2023 it was expanded to

WRLL WRLL (1450 AM) is a Spanish variety radio station licensed to Cicero, Illinois, and serving the Chicago market. The station is owned by Midway Broadcasting. History In 2006, WVON WVON (1690 AM "The Voice of the Nation", originally "Voi ...

References

1949 births 21st-century Illinois politicians 21st-century American women politicians American people of Greek descent Chicago-Kent College of Law alumni Cook County treasurers Illinois Democrats Living people Loyola University Chicago alumni Members of the Cook County Board of Commissioners Politicians from Wheeling, West Virginia West Liberty University alumni West Virginia State University alumni Women in Illinois politics {{Cook County Treasurer, state=collapsed