DePaul University experts available to discuss Chicago mayoral run-off, issues that will decide race

CHICAGO — As Chicago voters head to the polls in less than a month to decide whether Brandon Johnson, a Cook County Board Commissioner, or Paul Vallas, a former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, will be the next mayor of the third largest city in the U.S., DePaul University faculty experts are available to provide insight and commentary. Their expertise includes crime on the CTA, car jackings, causes of gun violence, drug laws, mayoral policy and politics, how both candidates will court Chicago’s diverse Latinx community, and more. Experts include:

College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences | geneva.brown@depaul.edu

A public defender in Milwaukee and Kenosha, Wisconsin, for nearly a decade, Geneva Brown is now a faculty member in DePaul’s Department of Criminology. Brown can speak to the effect of drug laws on poor communities and communities of color, cannabis law, and general criminal justice topics in Chicago. She recently appeared on CBS2 Chicago​ and in Vanity Fair discussing crime and the 2023 Chicago mayoral election, and has previously joined WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight” to discuss the Chicago Police Department’s gang database. 

College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences | akass2@depaul.edu

An assistant professor in the School of Public Service, Amanda Kass was previously the associate director of the Government Finance Research Center in the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). Kass is available to discuss public finance, public pensions and urban governance, particularly at the local scale. She’s also free to talk about the Chicago Recovery Plan, the Chicago public pension systems, and some aspects of the overall budget. In January 2023, Kass was part of a group of researchers who published a white paper that looked at how the American Rescue Plan pandemic recovery funding is being spent in Illinois.

College of Science and Health | cklugman@depaul.edu

Craig Klugman is a bioethicist and medical anthropologist who works on public health ethics, ethics pedagogy, and public engagement with bioethics. He has written about treating gun violence as a public health issue, efforts to silence doctors on asking about guns in the home, and on blaming the gun problem on mental illness instead of poverty and easy availability of guns.

College of Science and Health | omorriso@depaul.edu

Orson Morrison has spent his career working with youth and families that are involved in the child welfare system and those affected by poverty, social exclusion, violence, trauma and abuse. He has also worked extensively in higher-education settings. Morrison has consulted with schools, school districts and other child-serving systems. He is the Associate Director for Clinical Services of DePaul’s Counseling & Psychological Services and can discuss how to address violence in the news and exposure to traumatic events with young children, families and communities.

Xavier Perez 

College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences | xperez2@depaul.edu

A faculty member in DePaul’s Department of Criminology, Perez can discuss how Brandon Johnson and Paul Vallas will court Chicago’s diverse Latinx community. He’s also available to discuss cash bail, COVID-19 and its effect on crime, the causes of crime, violence prevention, violence in communities, Latinx populations and crime, the criminalization of immigrants, immigration as a political wedge issue, interactions between police and minority communities, prison education, and mass incarceration. He recently joined the “Can We Please Talk?” podcast to discuss issues in the Latino community and CBS2 Chicago to chat about topics surrounding the Chicago mayoral election.

College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences | jschwiet@depaul.edu

A professor in the School of Public Service and director of the Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development, Joseph Schwieterman is available for interviews on the rise in transportation-related crime in Chicago since the start of the pandemic, including crime on the CTA and car jackings. He can also discuss how the next mayor of Chicago should begin to address this rise in crime, and other transportation-related topics related to red light and speed cameras, paid street parking, ride share, airports, and road congestion, and construction projects. He spoke with CBS2 Chicago in 2022 about crime on the CTA.

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