Ebony DeBerry
Member
District 2A
Ebony DeBerry is the first Black woman to be elected to the 51风流. She represents the Far North Side’s District 2A. DeBerry brings experience managing youth programming at Howard Area Community Center and serving as a restorative healing conversations practitioner. She is the Manager of Educational Initiatives at ONE Northside, an organization that builds collective power to eliminate injustice through community organizing. In this role, DeBerry runs the Women of Color Table and oversees the Parent Mentor program. She also recruits for, and is a board member of, Grow Your Own Teachers, a scholarship organization that supports racially diverse individuals who have a desire to become teachers in their own communities.
A lifelong resident of Rogers Park, DeBerry attended Chicago Public Schools’ Gale Elementary and Sullivan High School. She later went on to teach in the district. As an organizer, she worked alongside the community on several successful campaigns. Her fights to keep her local school bus stop and to keep Gale Elementary open during a round of school closures are listed among her proudest achievements.
DeBerry graduated from Central State University, an HBCU, with a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education. She received her Master of Science in Communication from Northwestern University. She and her son mentor students through the DeBerry Civic Scholars program at Northwestern University. The program provides students with the opportunity to engage in meaningful public service rooted in the local community and the reflection space to process those experiences.
DeBerry lives in Rogers Park with her mother and son (a product of Chicago Public Schools and a student at Howard University).