Early life and career
Ameya Pawar is the former alderman of Chicago's 47th Ward and the first Asian and Indian American elected to the Chicago City Council. After leaving office,Ameya joined the Economic Security Project as a senior fellow and is working on narrative change efforts around guaranteed income and public options,including public banks. In 2020,Ameya was named a Leadership in Government Fellow with the Open Society Foundations (OSF). His OSF work will focus on public banking and public options with leading figures and organizations across the country and world. In addition,Ameya is a senior adviser to The Academy Group,a Chicago-based social enterprise working to break the racial wealth gap,and is a lecturer at the University of Chicago's School of Social Service Administration.He is also a special adviser to the University of Chicago's Poverty Lab.
While in office,Ameya focused legislative efforts around social justice,worker rights,and economic justice. To this end,Ameya led most all labor policy and worker rights legislation passed in Chicago over the last eight years,including raising the minimum wage to $13/hr.,guaranteeing paid sick leave,combating wage theft,and preserving housing for Chicago's most vulnerable.
Ameya is a US State Department Critical Language Program alum,a 2012 University of Illinois Edgar Fellow,and was named to Crain's Chicago 40 under 40 in 2011. Most recently,he was named a 2018 McCormick Foundation Executive Fellow.
Prior to leaving office,Ameya chaired the Chicago Resilient Families Task Force. The task force made recommendations on a city-run guaranteed income pilot.
Ameya is an expert on the connections between disaster planning and response and poverty. In 2014,Ameya co-wrote the textbook,“Emergency Management and Social Intelligence:A Comprehensive All-Hazards Approach.”The book was published by Taylor &Francis. [10]
2019 City Treasurer campaign
On October 29, 2018, Pawar announced his intention to run for Chicago treasurer. [8] Before deciding to run for treasurer, he had considered running in the coinciding mayoral election. [12] Pawar won 41.59 percent of the vote in the February 26, 2019 general election, forcing a runoff with Melissa Conyears-Ervin, a member of the Illinois House of Representatives, who won 44.26 percent of the vote, but had less than a majority of the vote, which led to an April 2 runoff. Pawar lost again to Conyears-Ervin in the runoff, receiving 40.62 percent of the vote.
A key stance that Pawar took in his campaign was advocacy for the creation of a municipal public bank. [13]
Other activities
In 2011, Governor Pat Quinn appointed Pawar to the Illinois Innovation Council. Pawar is the only elected official on this statewide council. In 2013, Quinn appointed Pawar to the Asian American Employment Plan Council.
Pawar was listed as a surrogate for President Barack Obama's 2012 campaign.
While running for office, he created an iPhone application named Chicago Works. This app enabled Chicago residents to make service requests from their iPhone. [14]
As of 2023, Pawar is a senior advisor to the Economic Security Project, a nonprofit. [15]
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