Rukisha Crawford

Rukisha Crawford is the Democratic incumbent for DeKalb County Board District 6, first elected in 2018 as the first African-American woman elected to the DeKalb County Board. A DeKalb resident of more than two decades, she raised her son in DeKalb School District 428, where she has worked as a substitute teacher since 2006.

She holds an associate degree from Kishwaukee College and a bachelor’s and two master’s degrees from Northern Illinois University. On the county board she serves on the Economic Development and Health & Human Services committees, and she also serves as a Forest Preserve commissioner and a member of the DeKalb County Board of Health. She is an at-large member of the DeKalb County Democratic Party.