Alum Matthew Swalek Awarded 2026 UIC Rising Star Leadership Award
Introduction
Each year, the University of Illinois Chicago Alumni Association recognizes extraordinary alumni who contribute to a vibrant, healthier, more connected world.
For the 2026 Awards, Alumni Matthew Swalek, '21, BA, Human Development and Learning, was awarded the Rising Star Leadership Award.
At Chicago’s City Hall, Matthew Swalek steers a transformative effort to counter decades of systemic inequities in his hometown.
Swalek, a native of Chicago’s Pullman neighborhood, attended UIC with one pragmatic mission: to graduate. Majoring in human development and learning in the College of Education, as well as his experience as an Urban Public Policy Fellow with UIC’s Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement, stirred an interest in politics.
“I saw public service as a vehicle to create change,” he says.
Swalek earned a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Chicago in 2024 and soon after joined Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s policy team. There, Swalek’s thoughtful assessments of prospective policy initiatives brought immediate promotions and additional opportunities to shape Chicago’s profile.
In 2025, the Mayor's Office of Equity and Racial Justice named Swalek its director of community healing. He is now managing Chicago's Reparations Task Force, a 40-member group developing the city’s first comprehensive reparations study for release later this year. The report will analyze harmful policies to Black Chicagoans and deliver recommendations to drive equitable transformation in city operations.
“Being from an underserved part of Chicago, I understand why equity and community healing is necessary,” Swalek says. “It’s what drives me to create the greatest good for the greatest number of people, especially those from historically underserved communities across Chicago.”