HOPE Fair Housing Center names former Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti new Executive Director

The Wheaton-based HOPE Fair Housing Center has named former Illinois Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti its new executive director.

Sanguinetti, who was born and raised in Florida and moved to Chicago in 1995, served as the state's first Hispanic lieutenant governor from 2015 to 2019. Previously, she was a Wheaton city councilwoman, an assistant Illinois attorney general and adjunct law professor at UIC's John Marshall Law School.

In October 2019, she dropped her bid for the Republication nomination to unseat Democrat U.S. Rep. Sean Casten in the' 6th District.

HOPE, Illinois' oldest fair housing center in Illinois established in 1968, "is dedicated to eliminating housing discrimination and segregation in all its forms, serving DuPage, Kane and portions of Cook County, as well as 28 counties in Northern and North Central Illinois," the organization said in a statement.

Board President Jay Mitchell welcomed Sanguinetti into her new role in the statement.

"For more than 52 years, HOPE has been fighting against housing discrimination and for social justice, a mission which seems more needed today than ever before," Mitchell said in the statement. "Ms. Sanguinetti brings with her more than 20 years of legal and governmental experience, along with the energy and commitment necessary to continue and build on HOPE's long and outstanding record."

Sanguinetti succeeds Anne Houghtaling, who served as HOPE's executive director from 2011 until earlier this year.