Hon. Karen Freeman-Wilson (ret.) is president and CEO of the Chicago Urban League. Previously, she served for eight years as mayor of Gary, Indiana, and was both the first woman and Black female mayor in the state. She has held posts including Indiana Attorney General and director of the Indiana Civil Rights Commission, and as a Gary City Court judge, she started and presided over one of the first treatment courts in Indiana.

Judge Freeman-Wilson is the immediate past president of the All Rise Board of Directors and previously served as All Rise CEO. She also serves on the boards of the National Policing Institute, Sandy Hook Promise, the Center for Community Progress, and the Kauffman Mayors’ Council. She is a past president of the National League of Cities and chaired the United States Council of Mayors Criminal and Social Justice Standing Committee. She is the recipient of numerous national and state-level awards, including the Treatment Court Hall of Fame Award from All Rise, Director’s Award from the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Sagamore of the Wabash Award from Indiana, and the Deans Award from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. Freeman-Wilson is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, where she returns frequently to lecture.