Dagmara "Dee" Avelar is the

Illinois State Representative The Illinois House of Representatives is the lower house of the Illinois General Assembly. The body was created by the first Illinois Constitution adopted in 1818. The House under the current constitution as amended in 1980 consists of 118 re ...

for the 85th district. She has held the position since January 13, 2021. The 85th district, located in the

Chicago area The Chicago metropolitan area, also colloquially referred to as Chicagoland, is a metropolitan area in the Midwestern United States. Encompassing 10,286 sq mi (28,120 km2), the metropolitan area includes the city of Chicago, its suburbs and hint ...

, covers all or parts of

Bolingbrook The village of Bolingbrook is a southwest suburb of Chicago in Will and DuPage counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Per the 2020 census, the population was 73,922. As of 2010, it is the 17th largest incorporated place in Illinois and the sta ...

, Crest Hill, Fairmont, Lemont, Lockport,

Naperville Naperville ( ) is a city in DuPage and Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is in the Chicago metro area, west of the city. Naperville was founded in 1831 by Joseph Naper. The city was established by the banks of the DuPage river, ...

Romeoville Romeoville is a village in Will County, Illinois, United States. The village is located southwest of Chicago on the Des Plaines River. Per the 2020 census, the population was 39,863. It is located in the southwest suburban area of Chicago near I ...

, and Woodridge. Avelar was elected to succeed outgoing State Representative

John Connor John Connor is a fictional Character (arts), character in the Terminator (franchise), ''Terminator'' franchise. Created by screenwriter, writer and film director, director James Cameron, the character is first referred to in the 1984 film ''The T ...

, who had been elected to the

Illinois Senate The Illinois Senate is the Upper house, upper chamber of the Illinois General Assembly, the legislative branch of the government of the U.S. state, State of Illinois in the United States. The body was created by the first state constitution adop ...

Early life, education, and career

Avelar was born in

Quito, Ecuador Quito (; qu, Kitu), formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital and largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its urban area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha. Quito is located in a valley on ...

and moved to

Bolingbrook, Illinois The village of Bolingbrook is a southwest suburb of Chicago in Will and DuPage counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Per the 2020 census, the population was 73,922. As of 2010, it is the 17th largest incorporated place in Illinois and the sta ...

with her parents when she was 12. She graduated from

Bolingbrook High School Bolingbrook High School or The Brook is a public four-year high school located in Bolingbrook, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. Bolingbrook High School is the second high school in the Valley View Community U ...

in 2005. She earned a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in Justice Studies with a minor in Political Science from

Northeastern Illinois University Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) is a public university in Chicago, Illinois. NEIU serves approximately 9,000 students in the region and is a Hispanic-serving institution. The main campus is located in the community area of North Park wi ...

in 2010 and earned her

Master's Degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in Urban Planning and Policy Candidate at the

University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a Public university, public research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its campus is in the Near West Side, Chicago, Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus esta ...

. She has been an active community organizer since 2008. She previously worked at ''Instituto Del Progreso Latino'' "as an accredited representative with a focus on citizenship and DACA." As of 2020, she works at the ''Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights'' as Director of Programs.

Illinois House of Representatives

Committees

Avelar currently serves on six House committees and one House subcommittee: the Appropriations-Public Safety committee; the Cybersecurity, Data Analytics, & IT committee; the Health Care Availability & Access committee; the Judiciary - Civil committee; the State Government Administration committee; the Transportation: Regulation, Roads committee; as well as the Family Law & Probate subcommittee.

Legislation

Several bills filed by Rep. Avelar have gone on to become law. These include an amendment to the Environmental Protection Act that requires groundwater monitoring at some construction sites, legislation that requires hospitals to proactively offer charity care options to uninsured patients, and a statute that requires insurance companies that issue group accident and health policies to offer these policies to local

chambers of commerce A chamber of commerce, or board of trade, is a form of business network. For example, a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to a ...

Electoral history

Personal life

Avelar resides in Bolingbrook, Illinois. She became a

naturalized Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

US citizen in April 2016.

References

External links

Representative Dagmara Avelar (D)
at the

Illinois General Assembly The Illinois General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. state of Illinois. It has two chambers, the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate. The General Assembly was created by the first state constitution adopted in 181 ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Avelar, Dagmara 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women politicians American politicians of Ecuadorian descent Ecuadorian emigrants to the United States Hispanic and Latino American state legislators in Illinois Hispanic and Latino American women in politics Living people Democratic Party members of the Illinois House of Representatives Northeastern Illinois University alumni University of Illinois Chicago alumni Women state legislators in Illinois Year of birth missing (living people)