Rep. Karen May
(D-Highland Park)
58th District

District Office
427 Sheridan Road
Highwood, IL 60040
(847) 433-9100
(847) 433-9111 (fax)

Capitol Office
255-S Stratton Building
Springfield, IL 62706
(217) 782-0902

E-mail: karen@repkarenmay.org

"I am your voice in Springfield on things that matter: superior schools, safe neighborhoods, affordable health care, efficient transportation, reproductive freedom, and others issues that concern you. My goal is to be a progressive, independent voice for our community."
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*Bill sponsorship and committee information courtesy of the Legislative Information System

Biography

State Representative Karen May is serving her sixth term as the State Representative from the 58th District in Chicago's North Shore suburbs. The district includes parts of Bannockburn, Deerfield, Glencoe, Highland Park, Highwood, Lake Bluff, Lake Forest, Northbrook, and Riverwoods.

As a public servant, May is dedicated to quality public education for all students, preserving open space and the environment, common sense gun control and protecting reproductive choice for women.

As a legislator, May has taken a leadership role on these issues and others important to consumers, children and seniors. She has introduced legislation to:

  • Expand access to health insurance for small businesses;
  • Provide emergency medical information on buses that transport disabled and special needs children;
  • Increase school funding in districts saddled with the cost of educating the children of military personnel;
  • Preserve endangered natural wetlands;
  • Require new firearms owners to enroll in gun safety classes;
  • Protect consumer privacy, and
  • Promote competition and establish new consumer protections in the telecommunications industry.
May earned her Bachelor of Arts in Communication fro the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. May then got her start in public life as a newspaper reporter in north suburban Chicago covering the local government beat. She went on to start her own advertising and public relations firm and served as its president.

Local elected office helped prepare Karen for the challenges of representing a diverse district with over 105,000 residents. As a former member of the Highland Park City Council, she served as a liaison to the Plan Commission, Lakefront Commission, Traffic Commission and Historic Preservation Commission. She also previously served as the Chair of the Highland Park Preservation Commission.

Karen's many charitable, educational and civic involvements in Highland Park and Lake County also helped ready her to serve in Springfield. As vice-president of the League of Women Voters of Highland Park, Karen gained a broad perspective of the need for campaign finance and election reform. On the Board of Directors of United Way, she saw firsthand the disparaging gap in basic human services like health care, education and mental health services for our state's least fortunate.

Karen and her husband, Morton, have lived in Highland Park for over 30 years. Their two children attended Highland Park public schools and are now grown and living in the area. The family are members of Lakeside Congregation in Highland Park.


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