Ameya Pawar

At Northwestern University

Prior to his election, Pawar was on staff at Northwestern University in the Office of Emergency Management. At Northwestern, he was responsible for the development of a university-wide business continuity program. While working at Northwestern University, he and two of his classmates from the University of Chicago were awarded a contract from Taylor and Francis to write a textbook based on their work in emergency management. The textbook is based on a model Ameya developed with two of his classmates at the University of Chicago's MSTRM program — the model is called Social Intelligence. Their work calls for the real-time aggregation of data to develop composite views of communities to better inform emergency preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery activities. Pawar and his co-authors have presented their work at annual Federal Emergency Management Agency conferences and other national conferences since 2008. He holds a M.S. in Threat and Response Management from the University of Chicago and a master's degee in public administration from the Illinois Institute of Technology. The textbook was released on December 29, 2014.

He is enrolled in a third master's degree program at the University of Chicago in the school of Social Service Administration. In 2009, Ameya was a US State Department Scholar. In 2011, Pawar was named to the Crains Chicago Business 40 under 40 list. He was also recognized by the New Leaders Council as an emerging leader under 40 in 2011. In 2012, he was named an Edgar Fellow by the University of Illinois.

Political career

In 2011, Gov. Patrick Quinn appointed Pawar to the Illinois Innovation Council. Pawar is the only elected official on this statewide council. In 2013, Gov. Patrick Quinn appointed Ald. Pawar to the Asian American Employment Plan Council.

Pawar was listed as a surrogate on the Obama 2012 campaign.

In December 2012, Pawar introduced an ordinance creating an Office of Independent Budget Analysis. This proposal and major reform creates an office which would provide City Council with independent analysis of privatization efforts and the annual budget. New York City and Pittsburgh have similar offices. The ordinance was immediately sent to Rules Committee where it is currently buried. In August 2013, Mayor Rahm Emanuel threw his support behind Pawar's budget office proposal and the proposal passed in December 2013. In May 2015, former Governor Quinn senior staffer Ben Winnick was rolled out as consensus candidate to run the new independent budget office. This after Pawar waged a behind the scenes campaign to prevent a former alderman from obtaining the appointment.

In April 2013, Pawar introduced the TIF Accountability ordinance. This ordinance passed City Council in July 2013. For the first time, Chicago will publish TIF promises versus what is finally delivered. According to Pawar, the TIF accountability ordinance is major TIF reform and will prevent companies from forcing Chicago into paying TIF subsidies.

In March 2015, Pawar gave a TEDx talk titled: Deciding to Decide. This talk featured Pawar's signature effort of creating a neighborhood K-12 system in the area he represents and the greater north side of Chicago. Pawar's GROW47 effort recently scaled from the 47th ward to three wards. Ald. Pawar is leading an effort to create a system within a system. The scaled effort, GROWCommunity, is gaining recognition across the City for attempting to provide all families equity and stability. The GROWCommunity effort was recognized by the Urban Land Institute with a 2015 Vision Award. Since that time GROWCommunity has been working to obtain non-profit status so that Pawar's work can continue after he leaves office. GROWCommunity is recognized now citywide as a model for linking communities to neighborhood schools and high schools.

In 2015, Pawar was appointed co-chair of the Working Families Task Force. The task force will provide Mayor Emanuel with recommendations for paid sick leave, paid family leave, and scheduling protections for hourly workers. In 2014, Mayor Emanuel appointed Pawar to the Minimum Wage Working Group. The work of that group led to a Chicago minimum wage of $13/hr.

In April 2016, Pawar introduced the Earned Sick Time ordinance with a coalition of aldermen and advocacy groups. The ordinance passed in June 2016 and will take effect on July 1, 2017 impacting over 500k workers in Chicago.

While running for office, he created a 'first generation' Open 311 app named Chicago Works. This app enabled Chicago residents to make service requests from their iPhone. A new version of the Chicago Works app is available in the Apple app store. Chicago Works is the first app to connect directly into the City of Chicago's 311 system. It's the first app developed after the Open 311 announcement.

Committee assignments

Alderman Pawar serves on the following committees in the Chicago City Council:

Appointments

Editorial opinions