Robin Rue Simmons

rities and concentrated poverty she witnessed locally and saw in other urban communities, she wanted to help young adults begin to build wealth through homeownership. As an entrepreneur, she launched and operated multiple businesses, including a bookstore in the 5th Ward, that also offered free afterschool programming, and a construction company in Evanston that employed Black tradespeople, developing dozens of affordable houses funded by the Illinois Neighborhood Stabilization Program. She continues to manage a handful of residential and commercial properties that she owns in Evanston. Most recently, Rue Simmons was the Director of Innovation and Outreach for Sunshine Enterprises, a not-for-profit on Chicago’s South Side, which has supported over one thousand entrepreneurs (virtually all African American and three-quarters women) in launching or growing their businesses. Rue Simmons served as an alderman from 2017-2021, serving on multiple committees and chairing several. During her tenure, she prioritized improving the lived experiences of and expanding opportunities for Black residents in Evanston, most notably through her work on reparations. The local reparations initiative will be funded by the first $10 million of adult-use cannabis sales tax revenue collected by the City and the first stage of the reparations program will focus on homeownership. Rue Simmons is an at-large member of the City Council’s Reparations Committee. Rue Simmons is a commissioner of the National African American Reparations Commission (NAARC), a lifetime member of NCOBRA, a board member of Evanston’s Connections for the Homeless, and she previously served as a board member for the National League of Cities’ National Black Caucus of Local Elected Leaders and the President of the Evanston Black Business Alliance. Rue Simmons has received numerous awards for her reparations and other public service work including the Urban One Honors’ Reparations Ambassador Award (Stacey Abrams and Nikole Hannah-Jones were among those also being honored); the Dearborn Realtist Board’s Vernon Jarrett Legislative Award; the Democratic Party of Evanston’s Liz Tisdahl Award; the Route Fifty Elected Official of the Year Award; the Realtist Women’s Council of Illinois’ Community Impact Award; and the Family Focus Community Leadership Imani Award. She has also been featured in numerous national and international publications, on television and radio, and in podcasts for her work on local reparations including The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Public Radio, The Guardian, ABC’s Nightline, and CNN. In June of 2022, Rue Simmons and her work were centered in the Documentary Film 'The Big Payback' by Actor and Director, Erika Alexander (Living Single, Get Out) and Whitney Dow. The film will premiere at Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on June 11 and covers the full scale of reparations work, both locally and nationally. She is featured alongside Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee, Dr. Ron Daniels, Dino Robinson of Shorefront Legacy, and more. Rue Simmons attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas where she majored in communications. She has two young adult children and one grandson. She enjoys double dutch and forest bathing in her free time.