National Convening Program Books 2016 YEO National Convening Program Book | Page 11

YEO NATIONAL CONVENING 2016

FRIDAY MAY 13
8:00 AM – 8:30 AM

Breakfast

8:30 AM – 9:00 AM

Opening Plenary
Great Room 1

JESÚS “CHUY” GARCÍA Cook County Board of
Commissioners
Jesús “Chuy” García currently serves as commissioner for the 7th District on the Cook
County Board. García emigrated from Durango, Mexico to Chicago at the age of 10. His
early commitment to equity led him to work as a paralegal and community organizer in the
Pilsen and Little Village neighborhoods of Chicago. In 1986, García was elected Alderman
to the Chicago City Council from 22nd Ward. In 1992, he ran for the Illinois State Senate
and became the first Mexican-American elected. After serving two terms, García left the
Senate to start Enlace Chicago, and in 2010 he returned to public office by successfully
running for Cook County commissioner. García was re-elected to a second term in 2014. In
2015, he decided to run for mayor of Chicago four months before the election and forced the
first ever run-off election in that contest. He holds a B.A. in political science and a master’s
degree in urban planning from the University of Illinois at Chicago. García and his wife,
Evelyn, reside in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood.

9:15 AM – 10:15 AM

Expanding Democracy Plenary Panel: Fair Districts and Fair Elections
Great Room 1

Fighting gerrymandering and politically exclusionary policies—including
at the ballot box—are essential to ensuring our government is of, by,
and for the people. We open our policy discussion with an examination
of voting rights and redistricting practices across the country, and focus
on protecting the vote for communities of color and youth to ensure
that voters choose their representatives—not the other way around.

SARAH AUDELO Rock the Vote
Sarah Audelo is Rock the Vote’s political and field director where she leads the organization’s
voting rights portfolio, Democracy Class, and nonprofit and political partnerships. Before
joining Rock the Vote, she was the policy director at Generation Progress, the youth
engagement arm of the Center for American Progress. There she led a team focused on
economic justice, higher education, criminal justice, LGBTQ rights and more. Previously,
she worked at Advocates for Youth, in both their organizing and policy shops. She ran the
Great American Condom Campaign and later led their domestic policy portfolio which
included issues like comprehensive sexuality education; HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment
and care; abortion access; and LGBTQ rights. After graduating from Georgetown
University with a B.S. degree in foreign service, she moved to the Rio Grande Valley as part
of Teach for America where she worked as a special education teacher with 9th- and 10thgrade students. She later received her M.P.P. from The George Washington University. She
is a proud Chicana and native of Bakersfield, California. 

DETAILED AGENDA

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