October 21, 2024
JULIE HAMOS
MEMBER, CIVIC FEDERATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Number of years with the Federation: 3
Committees: Legislative
Day job: Senior Advisor on Medicaid Coordination at the Office of Medicaid Innovation
In 2010, Julie was named the cabinet-level Director of the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, with a $20.5 billion budget and a staff of 2,200. She and her team were successful in redesigning the Medicaid healthcare delivery system, implementing the Affordable Care Act, modernizing major technology systems, and bringing fiscal discipline to the Medicaid budget. She continues her service to the state as Senior Advisor at the Office of Medicaid Innovation at the University of Illinois.
Julie served as State Representative from 1999 for 11 years. She was chief sponsor of groundbreaking legislation including comprehensive funding and reform of the regional transit system; the telecommunications act rewrite; a statewide energy efficiency building code; rental housing program with subsidies; statewide broadband deployment; and children’s mental health act. She received top legislative honors from over 50 organizations.
Julie has a J.D. degree from George Washington University National Law Center in Washington DC, and a B.A. degree from Washington University in St. Louis. She was hired as the first staff attorney for a newly formed subcommittee of the U.S. House Ways & Means Committee. She moved to Springfield, Illinois to create a legislative advocacy organization for low-income families in Illinois.
In Chicago, Julie served in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office for eight years, first as legislative and policy advisor to then-State’s Attorney Rich Daley and later as Director of the Child Support Division. She then organized her own firm which specialized in all phases of policy development, communications and community relations.
Julie completed the Leadership Greater Chicago program in 1987, was selected as a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government for Senior Executives in State and Local Government in 2004 and was honored to be named one of Crain’s Chicago Business “25 Women to Watch” in 2007.
You were born in Budapest, Hungary, but your family fled the country during the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, when you were seven, and came to the United States, where you grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. How would you say those early years in Hungary and your transition to life in the United States as a child influenced who you became as an adult?
After I lost three grandparents in the Holocaust, my parents and one remaining grandmother were persuaded to seek a better life in the United States, no different from the thousands of immigrants coming here today. The Hungarian Revolution made it possible for us to escape, in the dead of night amidst gunfire and searchlights. That experience as a young girl taught me a lesson about courage, determination and resilience that has shaped my character and has remained the driving force behind my work.
Your career in government and politics began after receiving your Juris Doctor degree from George Washington University in 1975. Can you tell us about your goals and career trajectory over those years after law school?
When I attended law school in 1972, there were no courses on policy or public interest law. I had to discover those interests independently through outside activities. My first job in Congress as Staff Attorney for the then-newly formed Oversight Subcommittee of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee exposed me to the policy arena and I discovered the meaningful work in government to pursue. My second job brought me to Springfield, Illinois to establish the first statewide advocacy office for legal aid attorneys and their low-income clients, the Legislative Support Center (the first generation of what later became the Shriver Center on Poverty Law). Those early years propelled me to a lifetime career in policy development, advocacy and policy implementation.
You served as a member of the Illinois House of Representatives, representing the State’s 18th district, from 1999 to 2010. What experiences are most memorable to you about your years in office? What are you most proud to have achieved?
As a State Representative, I delved into a tremendous variety of issues. I was able to tackle complex challenges, design innovative strategies, and organize broad-based coalitions. I convinced the leadership to create a Transit Committee and a Housing Committee, two key issues that required state-level focus, and I became the Chair of both, with many legislative accomplishments.
I am most proud that during the period I served, I frequently reached across the aisle to develop bipartisan policies, often requiring compromises, to solve problems and get things done. I continue to be a cheerleader for state-level policymaking where serious issues are undertaken that impact people’s lives.
On October 10, 2024, Planned Parenthood Illinois Action honored you with its Dr. Marvin Rosner Lifetime Achievement Award. What does this award mean to you?
Throughout my long career and volunteer work, I have been a champion of many issues affecting women. I helped draft and lobby for the Illinois Domestic Violence Act, the Illinois Criminal Sexual Assault Act, child support laws, comprehensive sex education, family leave, equal pay, long-term care reform, and more. I served on the Board of Directors of Planned Parenthood Illinois for seven years, until last year, and before 1999 on the Board of Planned Parenthood’s Chicago affiliate (prior to statewide consolidation). When I later was appointed as Director of the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services from 2010 to 2015, we expanded Medicaid coverage and services, including the Illinois Family Planning Action Plan to improve family planning services for Medicaid clients. This Planned Parenthood award was very meaningful to me in recognizing my lifelong commitment to reproductive healthcare and justice.
How are you spending your time these days, and what’s next for you?
I fell in love with healthcare, especially the Medicaid Program for low-income people, near the end of my career. I continue to work part-time as Senior Advisor at the Office of Medicaid Innovation at the University of Illinois. Providing operational support on projects assigned by the state Medicaid Program, this work allows me to stay involved in and contribute to healthcare policy. It also is an opportunity to connect my long-term interests in urban issues – housing affordability, food security, environmental quality, transportation access – with the current focus on their impacts on health, homelessness and quality of life.
I also have a full life of travel, theater, dance performances, volunteering, politics, family and friends.