Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez was sworn in to serve on the Chicago City Council in May of 2019 as Alderman of Chicago's 25th Ward which includes the communities of Pilsen, Little Village, University Commons, and Heart of Chicago. He was re-elected to his second term in 2023 and now serves as the Chairman of the Chicago City Council’s Committee on Housing & Real Estate. As an immigrant who came to the US alone as a teenager, Byron found care in every day teachers, coaches, and community members who gave him shelter, guidance, taught him the English language, and a gave him a pathway to a good education. Ten years ago, Byron settled in Pilsen, a historic immigrant working class neighborhood in Chicago and worked as an adult education teacher, founding the bilingual adult education program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He became politically active after former-Mayor Rahm Emanuel listed a neighborhood public school for closure where Byron volunteered as a soccer coach and lead community efforts to keep that school open which were ultimately successful. Later, Byron served as the Director of the Pilsen Alliance where he was a leader in the struggle against gentrification and displacement, co-founding the campaign to Lift the Ban on rent control in Illinois. As Alderman, Byron was the Chief Sponsor of an ordinance to curtail harassment of homeowners who have been targeted by predatory developers. Byron is a member of the Chicago Democratic Socialists of America. He holds a bachelors in Mathematics and Business Administration from Cumberland University, and a Masters in Economics from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is currently a PhD candidate in the field of Urban Education Policy.