For more than 25 years, Oak Park resident Ade Onayemi has demonstrated exceptional leadership in improving the quality of life for residents of Cook County District One and the Chicago area. Mr. Onayemi has been on the ground floor of efforts to revitalize neighborhoods, educate children and adults and provide access to health care for the underserved in the region.

A licensed architect based on Chicago’s West Side, Mr. Onayemi is the treasurer of the Madison Street Development Corporation, NFP. In partnership with the City of Chicago, this effort is responsible for bringing in commercial, retail and mixed-use development that will bring jobs and a better quality of life for residents of the West Side.  He also has co-chaired the Madison Street Leadership Committee, tasked by the Garfield Park Chamber of Commerce, to restore the economic vitality to Madison Street from Hamlin Avenue to Cicero Avenue. This plan was a collaborative effort of residents, businesses and organizations.

Mr. Onayemi also serves as the Chair on the Board of Directors for the Austin African American Business Network, Inc., a cooperative, non-profit organization that works to affect meaningful change in the Austin community.

Currently his firm, Urban Resource, Inc., is working on a mixed-use development that will bring more jobs, a much-needed grocery store and affordable housing to the West Side. 

In addition to strengthening the community’s economic framework, Mr. Onayemi has striven to restore its social fabric. He is the vice chair on the School Board of Directors for the Austin Business and Entrepreneurship Academy. The ABEA, part of the Austin High School complex, offers a rigorous college-prep curriculum and, at the same time, gives students the fundamentals of business. The Academy is a joint effort of the Westside Ministers Coalition and the Allstate Insurance Company and has the support of the Austin African Business Networking Association and the Austin Chamber of Commerce.

He also is a member of the Education Committee, a committee of the Austin-based Westside Ministers’ Coalition, a coalition that works to initiate self-help programs in the areas of housing, health, energy, education, economics, and community development. As a founder of the Organization of Nigerian Professionals, Mr. Onayemi mentors minority students throughout the region on the importance and significance of good education.

Education has been a hallmark of Mr. Onayemi’s life in Oak Park and he has worked hard to improve opportunities in that community and others as well. He served eight years on the School Board of Oak Park Elementary School District #97, including three years as its president. During his tenure on the board, the community successfully passed a bond issue that allowed for the construction of two middle schools and for improvements to the elementary buildings. Mr. Onayemi served on the Board of the Oak Park Education Foundation, a non-profit with the charge of funding, through non-tax revenues, innovative or experimental enrichment programs for Oak Park Elementary School District #97. 

Mr. Onayemi believes that a good foundation to success in school lies in early childhood education. He served on the steering committee of the Collaboration for Early Childhood Care and Education. The collaborative developed an early childhood system that assures every Oak Park child has access to high quality early childhood education and care and provides improved education and support for all children birth to kindergarten in Oak Park. He also has been an advocate for families as a member of the Oak Park Voices for Leadership Committee, a local group that works with Voices for Illinois Children on issues of concern to families throughout Illinois.

Mr. Onayemi has also worked to provide quality health care for all children. He served as a co-Chair of the 2007 and 2008 Annual Fund Campaign for The Children’s Clinic. The clinic has provided a range of quality health care and social services to children from infancy to age 18 from throughout the region.

A native of Nigeria and a naturalized citizen, Mr. Onayemi and his wife, Kathy, have lived in Oak Park for 25 years. They have two adult children, Justin and Christine. He is currently Warden of Grace Episcopal Church in Oak Park where he has been a member since 1995.