Portal:Chicago/Selected biography/119

Gery Chico is a Chicago lawyer, public official, and former candidate for Mayor of Chicago. On June 7, 2011, Chico was named Chairman of the Illinois State Board of Education by Illinois Governor Pat Quinn. Chico served as the Chief of Staff to Mayor Richard M. Daley from 1992 to 1995, and board president of the Chicago Public Schools from 1995 to 2001. He was named Outstanding School Board President by the Illinois State Board of Education in 1997. From 2007 to 2010, he was board president of the Chicago Park District, and in 2010 he was board president of the City Colleges of Chicago. With a Mexican-American father and a Greek-Lithuanian mother, he grew up in Chicago's McKinley Park neighborhood. He majored in political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago while volunteering in his political ward at the same time. He later worked for the Chicago City Council Finance Committee and received a law degree from the Loyola University Chicago School of Law. Chico ran a failed campaign for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senator from Illinois in 2004.