Bushra Amiwala

Bushra Amiwala is an award-winning activist, media icon, dynamic speaker and the first Gen Z woman to hold public office in the United States.
 
At the age of 19, she announced her candidacy for the Cook County Board of Commissioners, with the goal to serve  as a voice for her underrepresented generation and other marginalized communities. She has extensive experience and success in business strategy, customer service, branding, and organizational leadership across information technology, internet, non-profit organization management, primary & secondary education, business consulting & services, civic & social organizations, and government administration industries. She is empowering communities and breaking barriers and stands as a shining example of resilience and determination in her pursuit of positive change.
 
Her leadership has extended far beyond her campaign as she’s inspired countless others to increase their civic participation. As a result, she’s been named Glamour magazine’s College Woman of the Year, Seventeen magazine’s Voice of the Year, and internationally as CosmoGirl’s Change Maker of the Year. Bushra was awarded the Women’s Champion Award sponsored by the United Nations, has graced the cover of TIME magazine, and was recognized as Forbes Magazine’s “Woman to Watch” in 2021.
 
In addition to these awards, Bushra is the subject of an original PBS documentary called And She Could be Next, the female candidate on Amazon’s RUN the Series, has just debuted in a Hulu documentary called Our America: Women Forward, and she has made hundreds of TV and radio appearances, including outlets such as Fox, CBS, NPR, ABC, and PBS.  
 
Bushra has spoken at countless colleges and universities, organizations and international companies, with live audiences ranging from 25 to 15,000 people. She is a recent graduate from DePaul University and serves on the Board of Directors of the Indo-American Democratic Organization (IADO), GenerationVote, Women Empowering Women in Illinois Legislation (WeWill) and SheVotesIL. She holds her elected seat on the Skokie Board of Education, as its youngest member, is a candidate at Kellogg, Northwestern School of Management pursuing her MBA part-time and continues to work as a Solutions Consultant at Google.