Maria Pappas

Pappas was born June 7, 1949 in Warwood, a neighborhood of Wheeling, West Virginia, to first generation Greek American parents. She earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from West Liberty State College and a master’s degree in counseling at West Virginia State University. She then relocated to Chicago to work at the Adler Institute with Rudolf Dreikurs. She earned her Ph.D. from Loyola University in 1976. While a doctoral student, she received a state grant to work with mothers at Altgeld Garden Homes. She then taught at Governors State University until switching to the legal field; graduating from Chicago Kent College of Law in 1982.

Pappas, chose to run for one of ten positions elected at large from the City of Chicago. She received the first spot on the ballot and won. While a member of the Cook County Board, she had a political rivalry with then Board President Richard Phelan. She ran for the Democratic nomination to succeed Phelan as Board President in 1994. She lost to fellow board member John Stroger in a three way race that also included County Clerk Aurelia Pucinski.

In 1998, she was elected Cook County Treasurer. In her first year, she tripled the amount of interest earned by the Treasurer's office and uncovered a scam run by her predecessor Edward J. Rosewell. Rosewell resigned as Treasurer after being convicted for his role in a ghost payroll scheme. She was reelected in 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014. As Treasurer, she was the chief proponent of the Cook County Debt Disclosure Ordinance, which requires taxing districts to publicly report their finances, including pension debt.

She ran for United States Senate in 2004, losing the Democratic nomination to Barack Obama. She explored a run for Mayor of Chicago in 2011, but chose not to run.