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Suzanne Elder

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Suzanne Elder (née Lagershausen) is a Chicago community activist[1][2] and public health leader who has worked on school, health care, and community issues. Elder is also noted for her candidacy in the 2008 Democratic primary where she challenged the party's practice of preselection in lieu of election.

Education and activism

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Elder earned a master's degree in Public Policy from the University of Chicago, where she was appointed Health Policy Analyst for the Institute of Policy Research at the Harris School of Public Policy Studies and co-authored a study on the impact of state Medicaid rules on access to abortion.[3]

A community organizer in Uptown, who once worked with the Organization of the North East ("O.N.E."), Elder's activism took a personal turn in 2006 when her young daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Forced to quit her job to provide the basic care her daughter needed to stay in school, she soon recognized that there were thousands of families like hers struggling with a demanding diagnosis and non-compliant school districts.[4][5][6]

While attending second grade with her daughter, Elder built a statewide network of more than 3,000 affected families, and negotiated more than 200 Section 504 plans for families in crisis.[7] She drafted legislation and secured support from key legislators including House Minority leader Rep. Tom Cross, the bill’s chief sponsor. Elder also partnered with Chicago-Kent law school to provide affected families pro-bono legal services[8] The Care of Students with Diabetes Act (105 ILCS 145/1) became law in 2010.[9] The legislation has since served as a model for other states.[10]

After passage of the Act, Elder resumed her work in public health, focusing on health policy and programming and contributing to a number of committees, including the Governor’s task force on student health where she developed recommendations to decrease regulatory obstacles to implementing evidence-based health care practice and ensure students receive life-saving medication in the event of an emergency.[11] Elder has been instrumental in developing other important state and local health policies,[12][13][14] health programs,[15][16][17] and health promotion campaigns.[18][19][20] and works to raise awareness about chronic diseases and its impact on children and their families.[21][22][23]

Political candidate

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In November 2007, Elder announced her candidacy for the Illinois State Senate vacated seat of Carol Ronen.[24][25] This north side district has a notorious reputation for pre-selecting its office holders rather than electing them[26] and Ronen’s resignation was timed to keep the tradition alive.[27][28] With just 7 days left to collect signatures, the Elder campaign collected and filed its nominating petitions, forcing the first contested primary in the district in nearly than forty years.[29] Faced with an unexpected primary race, Ronen was forced to re-resign, changing the effective date of her resignation from January 2008 to after the primary election on February 5, 2008. Ronen went on to take a short but lucrative appointment with former Governor Rod Blagojevich[30] but resigned for a third time after a brief 8-week appointment that increased Ronen’s lifetime pension benefits by more than $1 million.[31]

Elder's campaign confronted pension spiking ploys by elected officials, pay-to-play politics, the abuse of tax increment financing (TIF) districts, and urged reform of Illinois tax structure.[32] The pro-choice and pro-gay marriage stances of the Elder campaign also highlighted the differences between civil unions and marriage and attracted substantial attention in the LGBT community.[33][34] Elder was endorsed by the Northside Chicago chapter of Democracy for America, an organization initially formed by former Howard Dean supporters which encourages grassroots Democrats to run for local, state, and federal office.,[35][36] the Independent Voters of Illinois-Independent Precinct Organization (IVI-IPO), National Organization for Women PAC, Americans for Democratic Action, the Illinois Coalition for Honest Government, but had little support from any current or past elected officials. Elder lost the February 5, 2008 primary[37] to Heather Steans, a philanthropist, fundraiser, and political contributor who heavily supported Governor Blagojevich[38] and had the support of most Democratic politicians and both daily Chicago newspapers. Elder was outspent 20:1, yet took more than 35 percent of the vote.

Elder and Steans later joined forces to pass anti-discrimination legislation. They faced formidable opposition from the state's powerful teachers' unions and others to secure the support needed to pass the Care of Students with Diabetes Act (P.A. 96-1485) and override Governor Quinn's amendatory veto.

References

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  1. ^ "Chicago Sun-Times, January 31, 2008". Archived from the original on February 3, 2008. Retrieved February 1, 2008.
  2. ^ Choices for Illinois Senate
  3. ^ Lagershausen & Coursey, The Effect of Select State Abortion Policies on State Rates of Abortion, 1975-1994 (1998)
  4. ^ "Girl, interrupted". tribunedigital-chicagotribune. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  5. ^ LAZARUS, DAVID (2007-10-14). "Medical costs put families on edge". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  6. ^ Shipman, Shanna. "Caring for kids with diabetes". Pekin Daily Times. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  7. ^ "The Care of Students with Diabetes". The Care of Students with Diabetes. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  8. ^ "Charities reaping lawsuit dividends". tribunedigital-chicagotribune. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  9. ^ "105 ILCS 145/ Care of Students with Diabetes Act". www.ilga.gov. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  10. ^ "Diabetes – Enacted State Legislation Overview, 2007–2012". www.ncsl.org. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  11. ^ "Seventh-grader dies of food allergy at Chicago school". tribunedigital-chicagotribune. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  12. ^ "Download". policy.cps.k12.il.us. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  13. ^ "Illinois sex education could include birth control information". tribunedigital-chicagotribune. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  14. ^ "Illinois General Assembly - Full Text of Public Act 099-0181". www.ilga.gov. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  15. ^ "Chicago Public Schools to expand free condom program". tribunedigital-chicagotribune. Archived from the original on March 21, 2014. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  16. ^ "chicagohealth77.org". chicagohealth77.org. Archived from the original on 2012-07-09. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  17. ^ "Designing a Difference in Public Health - GovLoop". GovLoop. 4 August 2014. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  18. ^ "Pregnant Boys: Shocking Ads Target Teen Pregnancy". ABC News. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  19. ^ "Smart Chicago Hosts Flu Shot App for Local Developer Using Civic Data". Smart Chicago. 29 October 2012. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  20. ^ Tribune, Chicago (3 December 2015). "Chicago (and its skyscrapers) wear condoms, thanks to new campaign". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  21. ^ Calentine, Leighann (2012-06-05). KiDS FiRST Diabetes Second: tips for parenting a child with type 1 diabetes. Spry Publishing LLC. ISBN 9781938170058.
  22. ^ Hurley, Dan (2010). Diabetes Rising: How a Rare Disease Became a Modern Pandemic, and What to Do About It. US: Kaplan Publishing. pp. 230. ISBN 978-1607144588.
  23. ^ https://nbclearn.com/files/nbcarchives/site/pdf/39096.pdf Archived 2016-04-12 at the Wayback Machine [bare URL PDF]
  24. ^ Stewart, Russ. "Forgettable 48th Ward Is Hog in 7th District", December 19, 2007 Archived January 7, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  25. ^ Joravsky, Forty-Eighth Ward Follies, Chicago Reader, November 15, 2007[permanent dead link‍]
  26. ^ "Why the Far North Side Should Be Called a 'Democracy-Free Zone'". NBC Chicago. 7 April 2011. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  27. ^ "Forty-Eighth Ward Follies". Chicago Reader. 15 November 2007. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  28. ^ "I Guess I'm the Skunk at the Garden Party". Chicago Reader. 13 January 2000. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  29. ^ "Political Analyst - Article December 19, 2007". www.russstewart.com. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  30. ^ "Blagojevich gets 14 years in prison for corruption". Yahoo News. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  31. ^ "Gov says he didn't know adviser would get 38K for 2 months' work". ABC7 Chicago. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  32. ^ http://www.suzanneelder.org/ Archived 2008-02-02 at the Wayback Machine Suzanne Elder for Illinois State Senator official website
  33. ^ "Elder, Steans discuss gay marriage in Rogers Park" by Matt Simonette, January 23, 2008
  34. ^ "Gayest Zip Codes in Illinois" Archived 2007-08-12 at the Wayback Machine
  35. ^ "Howard Dean speech, Winning Back America, March 18, 2004". Archived from the original on June 28, 2007. Retrieved January 30, 2008.
  36. ^ http://www.dfalink.com/campaign.php?id=2574[permanent dead link‍] Northside DFA
  37. ^ Chicago Board of Elections results, Democratic primary, 02-05-2008 Archived 2011-07-08 at the Wayback Machine
  38. ^ "Political Analyst - Article December 19, 2007". www.russstewart.com. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
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