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DENNIS MONDERO – Community Service Leadership

dennis monderoDennis Mondero has served as Executive Director of CMAA since August 2013, after serving for approximately ten years on CMAA’s Board of Directors.
What prompted Dennis, a former practicing lawyer, to join the non-profit world and work for a social service agency that helps immigrants and the low income community is the sympathy he holds for individuals relocating to a new country for a brighter future.  Dennis himself is a first-generation immigrant, having been born in the Philippines, when his family moved to Chicago in 1971.  Dennis spent his early childhood in the ethnically diverse Uptown neighborhood – Chicago’s Ellis Island – with his parents and younger sister.  He understands the sacrifice that his mother Amanda, a dentist, and his father, Virgil, an engineer, made in their lives by moving to a new country, learning a new language, and forsaking their prior careers so that Dennis and his sister could have better opportunities in the United States.  Dennis’s parents preached the common traits that so many generations of immigrant parents have preached to their children: education, hard work and perseverance can enable an individual to do anything.

Apart from practicing law, Dennis also worked in various roles in local government, holding positions as Deputy Buildings Commissioner for the City of Chicago, Deputy Chief of Staff for the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), and Senior Vice President & Chief Administrative Officer for the CTA.  Unless you have a spare hour or two, don’t ask him about transportation policy or his contribution to Train Tracker.

Dennis received his bachelor’s (BA) degree in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (he can’t stop talking about his beloved Illini), his law degree (JD) from Indiana University at Bloomington, and his master of law degree (LLM) in Real Estate from the John Marshall Law School.  He’s happily married to Dr. Melissa Daza Mondero, and is proud of each and every accomplishment attained by their beautiful daughter, Nina.

FUN FACT:  Dennis loves to swim, bike, and run.

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