Myles Mendoza

Myles Mendoza is the executive director of One Chance Illinois, a 501c3 public charity, dedicated to advancing public policy that expands quality education options for Illinois’ low-income and working-class families. A 501c4 named One Chance Illinois - Action and a political action committee named One Chance Illinois- PAC work to achieve these advocacy goals. The organization advocates for children to have equal access to high quality education providers across traditional, charter and private sectors. Prior to serving as One Chance Illinois’ executive director, Myles helped develop multiple educational and non-profit endeavors from the ground up. Most recently he served as part of Democrats for Education Reform’s national team where he helped strengthen existing outposts and developed new state offices throughout the country. In support of the film "Waiting for Superman," Myles led the development of the “Done Waiting” coalition, which represents one of the largest collective efforts of education reformers in national history. Prior, he was the development director for a start-up $100,000,000 fundraising campaign at the Denver Scholarship Foundation and developed an adolescent AIDS treatment program in Denver. Myles worked in adolescent psychiatry at what is now the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. Myles originally came to his non-profit executive career after years of front-line work in inner-city school environments including Metro East St. Louis and Chicago. Myles lives in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood with his wife Dr. Carrie Mendoza and his three sons Jesse, Noah, and Max. They were fortunate to be able to choose the neighborhood based on its quality traditional elementary school, Nettlehorst, where all three of their children attend.