Stevie Valles is a Co-Executive Director at Chicago Votes, a non-partisan, non-profit organization building a more inclusive democracy by putting power in the hands of young Chicagoans. Prior to 2021 he was the sole Executive Director, and under his leadership, Chicago Votes passed 3 laws, graduated over 100 young Chicagoans through leadership programs, increased the organizational budget from $500,000 to just over $2 million, and led in developing and implementing its first strategic plan. Chicago Votes is a local and national leader in youth civic engagement, they have increased youth voter turnout in Chicago to the highest it has ever been, brought civics courses to prisons, turned the Cook County Jail into a polling location, and have created space for young artists, young people who are formerly incarcerated, and youth from Chicago’s most under resourced communities to be the civic leaders Chicago needs.
He started his career as a social worker, but has spent the last 11 years working primarily as an activist, organizer, and advocate in many different roles.
Prior to joining Chicago Votes, Stevie was the National Campaigns Director for the Alliance for Youth Organizing (formerly the Bus Federation) where he led several national programs including National Voter Registration Day, a single ‘day of action’ committed to voter registration that successfully registered over 1 million people to vote in one day in 2016. While he claims Cincinnati, Ohio as home, Stevie’s childhood, career, and studies have taken him all over the United States.
Stevie has lived in 14 different cities, he left his family home at 13 and eventually made his way down to Huntsville, Alabama where he received a degree in Social Work from Oakwood University, a small HBCU, in 2010. After college, he decided to enter the political arena. He started as an intern at a think tank in Washington D.C., but quickly moved over to the organizing and campaign world. His first job as an organizer was during the 2012 presidential campaign in Trotwood, Ohio. After that campaign, he moved back to Washington D.C. where he worked for Senator Patty Murray as a policy fellow. In 2013, he moved to Austin, Texas and helped successfully pass affordable housing bonds that earmarked $75 million for local nonprofits to develop and build affordable housing and in 2014, he served as the North Texas Political Director for Wendy Davis’ campaign for Governor.
Following Wendy Davis’ campaign, he went on to work in the Texas Legislature as a policy analyst for former State Representative Borris L. Miles, upon completion of this role he moved to Chicago, Illinois where he has been a resident since August, 2014.
Stevie Valles has served as the Executive Director of Chicago Votes, a nonpartisan nonprofit, for the past 6 years. Over the past decade he has built a career focused on advocacy, nonprofit leadership and programming, political movement building, fundraising, public speaking, civic education, and journalism.
Stevie has also served on several professional committees and boards including: the Chicago200 steering committee, the city of Chicago Civic Engagement Advisory Council, the Cook County Community Advisory Council, the Advisory Committee for Vote Yes for Fairness, and the board of Change Illinois. He is currently a member of the Circle for Justice Innovations, the Advisory Board for the Community Solutions Program, the Demand Justice Advisory Committee, and the Board of Directors of Illinois Prison Project.
For his work he has received numerous awards, including: the MTV Leaders for Change Award, the Chicago Urban League Excellence in Advocacy Award, and the Safer Foundation’s Visionary Award. He served on the transition committee for the U.S. President in 2012, the Governor of Illinois in 2018 and the Mayor of Chicago in 2019.