What is the Healthy Illinois Campaign?

He was a leader in the design and implementation of positive aspects of Illinois’ new welfare law in 1997, and he spearheaded the statewide efforts in Illinois to create both the FamilyCare program, which provides health care insurance for up to up to 400,000 working poor parents of minor children, and All Kids, the first state plan to extend health coverage to every child. He has consulted and co-counseled with advocates in many states; helped draft numerous pieces of legislation; given hundreds of presentations; published extensively; and served as counsel in numerous federal and state cases, including Memisovski v. Maram, which established substantial reforms in children’s health care in Illinois.

He currently is working on state-based implementation of federal health care reform and leads the Responsible Budget Coalition, an effort bringing together more than 200 diverse organizations to advocate for state revenue and budget reform in Illinois.

Before joining the Shriver Center in 1996, he worked for two decades at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago, where he supervised public benefits advocacy. Among his honors, he has received the Kutak-Dodds Prize from the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, John Minor Wisdom Public Service and Professionalism Award from the American Bar Association’s Litigation Section, Child Health Advocate Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics, and Excellence in Pro Bono and Public Interest Service Award from the United States District Court and Federal Bar Association.

A 1975 graduate of Valparaiso University School of Law and former board member of the Chicago Transit Authority, John currently serves on the boards of Illinois Partners for Human Service and the Center for Law and Social Policy, is a member of the National Advisory Committee to the United States Census Bureau on Race, Ethnic and Other Populations, and co-chaired Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s summer 2014 Working Group on the Minimum Wage.

Esther Corpuz is a seasoned healthcare executive with over 30 years of experience in both community health centers and hospital markets. Before Alivio Medical Center, Ms. Corpuz was Vice President of Government & Civic Relations for Vanguard Health Systems, Chicago Market. Serving in a number of progressive leadership roles since joining MacNeal Hospital in October 1994, Corpuz led Vanguard’s engagement in Chicago’s diverse civic and community outreach initiatives.

Early in her tenure at MacNeal Hospital, Corpuz was instrumental in establishing a number of hospital-wide initiatives that address the specific needs of Latino patients, MacNeal’s fastest growing patient population. Corpuz was a lead supporter in introducing Illinois legislation that requires healthcare institutions to provide trained medical interpreters, a program she established at MacNeal Hospital in 1998. As a volunteer, she saw the need for increasing the bilingual workforce in healthcare and assisted The National Latino Education Institute (NLEI), formerly The Spanish Coalition for Jobs, in funding and implementing the first Bilingual Medical Assistant (BMA) Program. Before her arrival at MacNeal Hospital, Corpuz served as the Director of Primary Care for Mount Sinai Hospital and was responsible for the overall operations of 14 primary care centers. She has also worked in various consulting assignments, assisting with provider and physician development initiatives.

Joshua Hoyt served as the co-chair of the National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA) in 2012 and 2013, and became the Executive Director in 2014. Under Joshua’s leadership, NPNA’s members have assisted over 30,000 immigrants to become US citizens in the past two years. Joshua has been the nation’s foremost advocate to reduce the barriers to US citizenship for immigrants. Under Joshua’s leadership NPNA has advocated for a national approach to immigrant integration, resulting in the first ever White House Convening on Immigrant and Refugee Integration and eight National Immigrant Integration Conferences.

Joshua was Executive Director and Chief Strategy Executive at Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights from May of 2002 to December 2013. During this time the Coalition has fought vigorously for citizenship for the undocumented, to protect civil liberties in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001, and for a full integration of immigrants into the American Dream. Under Joshua’s leadership ICIRR led the efforts to make Illinois one of the most immigrant friendly states in the US, and was considered one of the most effective immigrant organizations in the US. Illinois was the first state in the US to create a Governor’s Office of New Americans; a New Americans line item in the State budget; a naturalization initiative that has assisted over 90,000 Illinois immigrants to become US citizens; to provide pre-school and health care to undocumented children; and to pass an Illinois DREAM act to support college education for undocumented youth. During this time the Coalition grew from a $1.8 million dollar a year budget to a $7.9 million budget, and increased from 9 to 40 full and part-time employees.

Joshua has worked a total of 37 years as an organizer for social justice in Illinois, and in Spain, Peru, and Panama, as a lay volunteer for the Catholic Church. From 1986-89 Joshua served as President of the Citizens Utility Board of Illinois, the state’s largest consumer organization as it won hundreds of millions of dollars in refunds for utility consumers. More recently he served as the associate director of United Power for Action and Justice, an ambitious metropolitan wide citizen organizing effort that was part of the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) network as it led the FamilyCare campaign in Illinois, expanding health insurance coverage to 170,000 uninsured adults.

Josh was educated at the University of Illinois and the Universidad Central de Barcelona, Spain, and received his Master’s Degree from the University of Chicago. He has testified before Congress; spoken to such national media as the Leher News Hour, the O’Reilly Factor, the Lou Dobbs Show, the Glenn Beck Show, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal; published opinion pieces and articles in the Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, the Huffington Post, US Catholic, and other magazines; and directed several political campaigns. He speaks fluent Spanish and limited Portuguese.

Nearly 20 years ago, neighbors in Chicago’s Pilsen community began talking with new urgency about the blight, violence, and neglect they saw on their blocks.

Six of the community’s parishes helped residents turn the talking into action when they joined together and each contributed $5,000 in seed money to start a community organization to address these infecting problems – and The Resurrection Project, starting with one employee and a community full of concerns, was born.

Now two decades later, TRP has turned that initial $30,000 into over $200 million in community investment in the form of homes for ownership, rental housing, and community facilities (including 2 child care centers) in its target neighborhoods of Pilsen, Little Village, and Back of the Yards.

Its mission is to build relationships and challenge people to act on their faith and values to create healthy communities through organizing, education and community development.

As Illinois Business Immigration Coalition’s executive director, Rebecca Shi works directly with a steering committee of 68 Illinois-based CEOs, University presidents, chambers of commerce and immigrant advocates to develop and implement strategy that support the passage of immigration reform. IBIC has been extraordinarily effective in moving the politics of the state, winning public bipartisan support from the majority of Illinois’s Congressional delegation.

Rebecca was the campaign manager for Illinois’ SB 957 “Road Safety, Mandatory License and Insurance for All Act.” She led the successful passage of SB 957 by building a broad coalition of Illinois CEOs, chambers of commerce, law enforcement, faith and immigrant leaders to license and grant mandatory insurance to 450,000 undocumented immigrants in Illinois.

A graduate of the University of Chicago, Rebecca was named a “20 in Their 20s” by Crain’s Chicago Business. Rebecca emigrated from China when she was 10 years old. She is fluent in Chinese and conversational Spanish.

Carmen Velásquez is the founder of Alivio Medical Center and the immediate past Executive Director. In the mid-1980s, she was very passionate and involved with issues surrounding barriers to healthcare. Troubled by the fact that the medical needs of so many Mexicans living in Pilsen, Little Village and Back of the Yards were being severely neglected, she garnered the support of fellow Latino community members and spearheaded a drive called Project Alivio.

Ms.Velásquez and Dr. Ann Garcelon, a colleague of Ms.Velásquez and former Alivio board member, approached Mercy Hospital’s CEO, Sister Sheila Lyne. When Sister Sheila supported the creation of a community health center to address the issues of access to health care, the work of Alivio Medical Center was initiated.

In 1988, Ms.Velásquez was hired as Alivio’s first Executive Director. Soon after, while walking through Pilsen in search of clinic space, she saw a muffler shop parking lot bursting with trucks. When Ms.Velasquez went in and asked the owner if the lot was for sale, he said, “Offer me something.” So she did and offered the owner an amount which Project Alivio did not yet even have. That day, they launched a campaign to raise $2.1 million for the lot, the construction of the clinic and all necessary equipment. This site became the home of Alivio’s very first clinic.

Every human being has the right to access education and has the right to access healthcare, no matter what their color, and no matter if they’re rich or poor.

alia.elassar@healthyillinoiscampaign.org