Collections by Michelle Brown WSG Maria Hadden 2018 Esteem Award Winner

Maria Hadden has lived in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood for 10 years. It was her first neighborhood in Chicago. Hadden wants to find a new way to support her beloved neighborhood by running for Alderman in the 49th Ward. If elected, Hadden would become the first queer Black woman on the Chicago City Council.  She is the recipient of the Esteem Award for Outstanding Service, Female - Chicago award.

She attended Ohio State University where her undergraduate study was in International Studies, specifically in peace and conflict studies. After finishing college, she signed up to work for the nonprofit organization AmeriCorps, which brought her to Chicago. Maria’s interests in community voice and the role of civil society were the focus of her graduate studies at DePaul University where she earned an M.S. in International Public Service Management.

Maria is a founding board member of the Participatory Budgeting Project and from 2010 - 2018 led their technical assistance work in the Midwest and the Southern United States. She serves on the board of directors for Black Youth Project 100. She is currently Executive Director of Our City, Our Voice, a nonprofit organization whose purpose is to support civic engagement processes and organizing with the goal of building community capacity to advance transformative social justice and democratic practice in the United States.