State Transformer: Senator Sue Rezin
Sue Rezin was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives in November of 2010, and was then appointed to the Illinois State Senate. She was sworn in as State Senator on December 14, 2010, and has continually represented the 38th Legislative District since then. Currently, she serves as Assistant Leader in the Senate Republican Caucus, and has served in this role since 2015. Senator Rezin currently serves as the Minority Spokesperson on the Senate Energy and Public Utilities and Senate Revenue committees. She is also a member of the Education, Executive, and Government Accountability and Pensions committees, as well as a member of the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules.
On a national level, Senator Rezin is an active member of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), which is a national bipartisan organization that brings legislators together from across the country to share information to craft solutions to problems states face. She received the Women in Politics Making a Difference Award by NCSL in 2016. Senator Rezin is a graduate of Harvard University’s Kennedy School
of Government’s Senior Executives in State and Local Government Program and earned a degree in International Business and Political Science with a minor in Hispanic Studies from Augustana College. For nearly two decades, she has been the co-owner and manager of her family’s real estate company. Senator
Rezin and her husband, Keith, reside in Morris and have four children.
State Transformer: Representative Rita Mayfield
As a lifelong resident of Waukegan, Representative Mayfield serves the communities of Waukegan, North Chicago, and part of Gurnee as State Representative for the 60th District. She was appointed to the seat in in July 2010 and has been serving since, and is the first African American Female State Representative elected to the 60th District. She is Chair of the Appropriations for Elementary and Secondary Education Committee, Vice Chair of Community College Access and Affordability, and Chair of the Subcommittee on Job Growth, Preservation and Training. She is also a member of the Property Tax Relief Task Force.
Her passion for her community and issues around education laid the groundwork for her entry into the political arena. She is a founding Member of Citizens Organized for School Leadership Accountability (COSLA) which led her to running and being elected to the Waukegan Board of Education
where she served 2 years as Vice President. Representative Mayfield was appointed as a Member of the Waukegan Schools Foundation Board. Representative Mayfield earned a B.S. Degree in Computer Science from Columbia College, an M.B.A. from Benedictine University and an M.S. in Management and Organization Behavior from Benedictine University. She is committed to serving the needs of educating children and improving the lives of the less fortunate. Representative Mayfield lives in Waukegan with her husband Wesley and two children.