Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Commissioner, 6-year term

Kari K. Steele was elected November 6, 2012, to her first term as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) and re-elected in 2018 for a second term. In January 2019, she became the first African American woman in the more than 130-year history of the MWRD to be elected by the Board of Commissioners to serve as President. She is currently serving her third term as President of the Board of Commissioners.

President Steele serves as Chairman for the Affirmative Action and Maintenance & Operations committees. She is Vice Chairman of the Federal Legislation; Pension, Human Resources & Civil Service; and Industrial Waste & Water Pollution committees. She also currently serves as a board member on the Public Building Commission of Chicago and trustee of the MWRD Retirement Fund.

President Steele is a chemist, environmentalist, licensed real estate broker, and a community leader. She has more than 11 years of experience working as a chemist. She started her career at MWRD as a water sampler and lab technician intern. She has also worked as a water chemist for the City of Chicago Department of Water Management’s Jardine Water Purification Plant.

President Steele is uniquely qualified to discuss and analyze proposed operational changes and operational efficiencies. She is the first and only chemist serving on the MWRD Board of Commissioners. President Steele is featured in Crain’s Chicago Business 2023 Notable Women in STEM edition.

To learn more or get involved: https://www.commissionerkaristeele.com/

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Commissioner, 6-year term

Commissioner and Chairman of Finance, Marcelino Garcia, of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) is an attorney with expertise in local and international governments, healthcare, and community affairs. He is a public servant who has spent years helping people address their legal difficulties through his public interest law work. He also works arduously to bring resources to communities to ensure their economic and health development.

At the MWRD, Marcelino has thoughtfully and energetically set course several initiatives that advance equity in the water space in particular through business participation. In July 2019, Marcelino led the passing of the LGBT/Peoples with Disabilities policy to increase the number of companies within the diversity program and ensure that Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion are prime components of MWRD’s programs and contracting opportunities. During the pandemic, Marcelino hosted virtual business roundtables, helping advance MWRD’s efforts to create opportunities for small business owners. In 2020, Marcelino served as Co-Chair of the Strategic Plan’s Steering Committee, helping develop for the first time an equity- and resiliency-focused Strategic Plan.

His expertise in procurement spans 20 years, collaborating with partner agencies to ensure best practices. Marcelino has worked with management and budgets at the State of Illinois to ensure that entities run properly and ensure equal participation. Marcelino is also Director of Community Affairs for Cook County Health, the nation’s third largest public health system. His work also focuses on ensuring that Chicago and Cook County are recognized as a true international city with the many different business and cultural attributes that the city and region have to offer. Marcelino has many years of international business development experience having worked as Senior Manager of International Relations for Chicago 2016 the Olympic Candidacy Committee and as Assistant Managing Director of the Illinois Office of Trade and Investment (OTI) where he worked with Illinois companies looking to export to new markets in the Americas, Africa, and the Middle East.

To learn more or get involved: https://www.marcelinogarcia.org

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Commissioner, 6-year term

MWRD Commissioner Daniel “Pogo” Pogorzelski’s long career in public service connects Chicago’s robust tradition of civic activism, economic development, environmental action, empowering the arts, and community organizing. Since being sworn just over a year ago, Commissioner Pogorzelski has made it a priority to connect with all 77 Community Areas in the City of Chicago as well as the 125 other municipalities the district serves. Commissioner Pogorzelski also takes pride in his work to secure additional funding for the district to expand their work in helping deal with flooding issues caused by climate change.

The son of immigrants, Commissioner Pogorzelski’s passion to link people with resources, especially with communities for whom English is a second language, has been a constant in his wide-ranging record of volunteerism.

As the former executive director of the local chamber of commerce in the Chicago neighborhood of Avondale, Pogorzelski worked to not only utilize the arts as an economic engine to assist local business, he helped foster a local movement by residents to beautify the neighborhood. During his tenure as chamber ED, Avondale became part of the city’s neighborhood tour program run by the Chicago Office of Tourism and Culture, helping to generate revenue for local mom-and-pop business owners. Partnering with organizations such as the Northwest Arts Connection and Arts Alive Chicago, festivals such as the Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival, the Avondale Restaurant Crawl, as well as A Day in Avondale, brought media attention to the area’s cultural revival. The capstone of this effort was the successful creation of a community space which doubles as a piece of green infrastructure to capture rainwater. Pogorzelski’s moniker as the “unofficial Mayor of Avondale” is a nickname he holds exceptional pride in.

To learn more or get involved: https://www.gopogomwrd.com

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Commissioner, 2-year term

Precious Brady-Davis was appointed to the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District by Governor Pritzker in 2023 and is the first openly Black Trans Woman appointed to public office in Cook County history and the first to serve on a water reclamation district in the US.

Commissioner Brady-Davis is a lifelong social justice advocate, communications professional, environmentalist, author of the memoir “I Have Always Been Me” and cares passionately about reaching the marginalized through her extensive career in nonprofit management and public speaking.

For the past six years she has served as the Associate Regional Communications Director at Sierra Club leading campaigns that champion renewable energy, hold corporate polluters accountable, and fight climate change. She counts fighting​​ to protect the water supply in Oklahoma from pollutants, Minneapolis committing to transitioning to run on 100% renewable energy by the end of 2023 along with holding Former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt accountable during the Trump years as solid victories for the environment under her leadership.

To learn more or get involved: https://www.preciousbradydavis.com