Supervisor

Danielle Chynoweth, Cunningham Township Supervisor Photo in field with flowers

Danielle Chynoweth

Pronouns: she/her/hers or they/them/theirs

Danielle Chynoweth has been a community organizer for 30 years. As Cunningham Township Supervisor her office provides the last safety net for the lowest-income residents of Urbana.

From 2014-2016 Danielle was the Organizing Director at the Center for Media Justice, where she coordinated a national network to win campaigns for net neutrality, prison phone justice, and broadband expansion for low-income families. In 2009 she managed the national campaign that won passage of the Local Community Radio Act. In 2012, she managed the primary campaign for Carol Ammons for State Representative. From 2001-2008, she served on Urbana City Council, spearheading the creation of Urbana’s Public Arts Program, living wage ordinance, and Civilian Review Board of Police. For 14 years she was Vice-President and partner of Pixo Tech. Danielle co-founded the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center, which has sponsored over 60 international media justice projects.

Danielle has taught and presented on social change, media justice, poverty, housing insecurity, and leadership throughout the U.S. and in Thailand, Burma, Italy, and Kenya and at Evergreen State College as an Evans Scholar. She is co-authoring a book, Democratize This! How We Make the World We Want.

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

  • UI School of Social Work, Field Instructor
  • Champaign Urbana Public Health District, Member
  • Housing Authority of Champaign County, former Board Member
  • Township Supervisors of Illinois
  • Urbana Champaign Independent Media Center, Co-founder, Board President

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

  • Executive Training, Ford Foundation
  • Management for Change, The Management Center
  • Advanced Facilitation Training for Trainers, School of Unity and Liberation
  • Digital Organizing School, Wellstone Action
  • Trauma-informed care training: General, for the Homeless, for Women

PROFESSIONAL RECOGNITION

  • M.S. Political Science, New School for Social Research, NYC
  • B.S. Political Science & Fine Arts, New College, Sarasota, Florida.
  • Public Official of the Year, CU Octopus
  • Social Justice Award, McKinley Foundation (2018)
  • Leadership in Government Award, Champaign County Health Care Consumers (2018)
  • Woman of the Year, Central Illinois Business Magazine (2011)
  • ACE Awards Recipient for Creative Community Service, 40N | 88W Arts Alliance (2007)
  • Media Giraffe, University of Massachusetts, Amherst (2005)