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Rebecca Janowitz lives in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood and raised her children in the house she moved into with her family in 1960. After studying history at the University of Sussex in Great Britain, she earned a law degree. Rebecca worked on the Pine Ridge reservation, representing indigent Native American clients. She returned to Chicago and practiced law for nineteen years in the partnership of Pecquet and Janowitz.
Rebecca married Paul Collard, an electronics engineer who helped found U.S. Robotics and subsequently did innovative work on concentrating solar collectors. They have two sons, Aaron, a recent graduate of the Illinois Institute of Technology and Daniel, now a college student. Paul died in 2005 of Huntington’s Chorea, following many years of illness.
Rebecca worked for Alderman Toni Preckwinkle for seven years, opposing demolition, crime and payday loans. She is now on the staff of Arne Duncan, CEO of the Chicago Public Schools. She is the co-chairman of the education taskforce of the Quad Communities Development Corporation, serving the communities of North Kenwood, Oakland, Grand Boulevard and Douglas. She is the founder of the 57th Street Children’s Book Fair that celebrates its twentieth year in 2006. She was elected to the Local School Councils for Ray School and Kenwood Academy, neighborhood public schools that both her sons attended. Her elder son served as her campaign manager, using the slogan, “Vote for my Mom.” She belongs to Congregation K.A.M. Isaiah Israel, the oldest synagogue in Chicago. |
