Meet Leni…

Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth is the alderwoman of the 48th ward — which includes parts of Andersonville, Edgewater, and Uptown — since May 2023. Prior to taking office, Leni was a longtime local small-business owner and community organizer in the ward, where she has lived for over 20 years. She is the mother of three kids, all of whom attended Chicago Public School in the ward. The daughter of immigrants, Leni is a lifelong Chicagoan and is the first Filipina to sit on the Chicago City Council.

In our community, Leni founded Indivisible Illinois 9th District Andersonville-Edgewater (Indivisible IL9), which endorsed such initiatives as the Peace Book Ordinance and CPAC Now, which later became Empowering Communities for Public Safety ordinance (ECPS), leading to the creation of Chicago’s first Police District Councils we have today. At the state level, Leni co-founded Indivisible Illinois to empower grassroots groups across the state of Illinois to work together to support progressive candidates and policy initiatives.

Leni was the Director of Operations for the Illinois Chapter of the Women’s March on Washington and founded ILVOTE, a state-wide organization with a mission to help the electorate stay informed and engaged in every election. In 2018, she was awarded the Peggy A. Montes Unsung Heroine Award of Cook County for her work at ILVOTE.

Leni has served on the boards of the Andersonville Chamber of Commerce, Chicago Tap Theater, Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre, and the Jones College Prep Local School Council.

As a small-business owner, Leni adopted the inclusive principles behind the Chicago Therapy Collective’s Hire Trans Now initiative, which advocates for policies that help reduce barriers to employment for trans people, especially people of color. Later, the city of Chicago also adopted this initiative.

Leni is deeply committed to the values that health, housing, and safety are human rights and that caring for our whole community leads to safety for everyone.

City Council Committees

These are the committees that Leni serves on in the Chicago City Council:

  • Committees and Rules

  • Economic, Capital and Technology Development

  • Environmental Protection and Energy

  • Health and Human Relations

  • Housing and Real Estate

  • Immigrant and Refugee Rights

  • Pedestrian and Traffic Safety

  • Public Safety