Centennial Celebration

Since assuming office following her historic election, Mayor Lightfoot has undertaken an ambitious agenda of expanding opportunity and inclusive economic growth across Chicago’s neighborhoods and communities, with early accomplishments including landmark ethics and good governance reforms, worker protection legislation, and closing a record $838 million

budget gap, as well as key investments in education, public safety and financial stability. Mayor Lightfoot also placed Chicago on the path to a $15 minimum wage by 2021.

In response to the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis, Mayor Lightfoot has led a coordinated, citywide response across government, business, and community organizations to effectively address its spread and broader public impact, including the creation of the Racial Equity Rapid Response Team, the COVID-19 Recovery Task Force, among other actions.

Prior to her election, Mayor Lightfoot most recently served as a senior equity partner in the Litigation and Conflict Resolution Group at Mayer Brown. Previously, she served as President of the Chicago Police Board, as well as the Chair of the Police Accountability Task Force. A native of Massillon, Ohio, Mayor Lightfoot has been a resident of Chicago since 1986 and lives on the Near Northwest Side with her wife Amy Eshleman and their daughter.

Jill Wine-Banks was one of the three prosecutors during the Watergate scandal, and the only woman. Her memoir, The Watergate Girl, tells her very personal story of that time. She was also the first woman to serve as General Counsel of the Army under President Jimmy Carter, the first woman executive director of the American Bar Association,

the first Solicitor General and first female Deputy Attorney General of Illinois.

Wine-Banks is currently an MSNBC Legal Analyst, appearing regularly on primetime and daytime shows. She also appears on PBS, Canadian and Australian networks, Sirius XM, NPR and other radio shows, including Stephanie Miller’s, and podcasts. A sought-after speaker, Jill appears before professional, political, women’s and business groups, universities and law schools. In addition, Jill has written OpEds for the NBC.com, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Politico, and Huffington Post. She has also been featured in several documentaries and films, including Academy Award winner Charles Ferguson’s Watergate, or How We Learned to Stop an Out of Control President, Robert Redford’s All The President’s Men Revisited, ABC 20/20,

and Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 11/9.

She has a B.S. in Communications from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law in New York City, and an Honorary Doctor of Law from Hood College.

Genevieve Thiers is a playwright and performer that lives in Chicago. Her works include Backwards in Heels, Anna Russell: A Visitation and a new musical called Everly Yours, written with composer Mischa Zupko. She is a member of the Chicago Dramatists Playwright circle.

As a performer, she has sung and acted with numerous New York and Chicago companies, among them

Chicago Lyric Opera (Praskovia, The Merry Widow), Goodman Theatre (Dinah, Trouble in Tahiti), Porchlight Theatre (Older Belle, Little Me), NY Lyric Opera at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, American Chamber Opera, OperaModa, Elgin Opera and Chicago Chamber Opera.

In addition to work in film, Thiers’s straight acting work includes engagements at Theatre D in Deerfield (Pat O’Neil/When the Fat Lady Sings) and, in Chicago, at Fury Theater (Antonia/Much Ado About Nothing), On the Spot Theater (Only You Could Think That), and understudy work at Lookingglass Theatre.

Broad Minded: A Cabaret of Very Vocal Women are women who sing about women's issues in funny, heartbreaking and fierce ways. They stand up for women and women's rights. They have fundraised for the League of Women Voters of Chicago and others.