CHICAGO, IL, November 03, 2020 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Darlene Oliver Hightower has been inducted into Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Throughout the course of her career, Ms. Hightower has dedicated herself to advancing equity, access and social justice within the court system, non-profit organizations and healthcare. She graduated, magna cum laude, from Bradley University with a Bachelor of Science in psychology, and continued her education at the Georgetown University Law Center, where she earned a Doctor of Jurisprudence in hopes of practicing as a civil rights lawyer. While attending Georgetown, she established the Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Public Policy, serving as an associate editor, and was active in the school's Poverty Law Legal Clinic and Public Interest Law Initiative, clerking on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union. Eminently qualified in her field, Ms. Hightower holds additional graduate certificates in nonprofit management and civic leadership.
Ms. Hightower's early legal career included working with the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and in private practice environmental coverage litigation. In 2000, she became an associate of Robinson Curley & Clayton PC, rising to become a partner in 2006, launching her civil rights career. Since 2008, she has served as an administrative law judge for the Chicago Commission on Human Relations, presiding over administrative hearings and providing written rulings in cases. Ms. Hightower subsequently transitioned into nonprofit management in 2010 as the associate director of the Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Task Force, where she developed more than $125,000 in corporate sponsorships and more than $1 million in grant monies to support programming and administrative budgets before departing in 2013 to become the executive director of Public Allies Chicago.
In 2016, Ms. Hightower began her career with Rush University Medical Center as the associate vice president of community engagement and practice, overseeing community programs, community benefit reporting, three school-based clinic locations and student service learning programs. She moved into her current role as the vice president of community health equity in 2019, and worked to launch the institution's Anchor Mission strategy, andWest Side United, a social justice collaborative focused on improving health in communities on the West Side of Chicago. Among many other career honors, Ms. Hightower has been named as a Robert Wood Johnson Fellow, a Chicago Community Trust Leadership Fellow and an American Express Leadership Academy Fellow, and was named as a US News and World Report 2020 Healthcare Hero.
Ms. Hightower has contributed to numerous articles and case studies published in professional journals, and has been an invited speaker at law and health conferences throughout the United States, including addresses to the American Hospital Association, the American Association of Healthcare Colleges and the National Academy of Medicine. She, has served on the boards of organizations including Planned Parenthood of Illinois, the Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and the Chicago Foundation for Women. She is also a trustee of the Braeside Foundation. Ms. Hightower attributes her success to the support of mentors, colleagues and the extended healthcare community, and hopes to continue her work in the social justice leadership space.
About Marquis Who's Who®
Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who's Who in America®, Marquis Who's Who® has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Today, Who's Who in America® remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms around the world. Marquis® now publishes many Who's Who titles, including Who's Who in America®, Who's Who in the World®, Who's Who in American Law®, Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare®, Who's Who in Science and Engineering®, and Who's Who in Asia®. Marquis® publications may be visited at the official Marquis Who's Who® website at www.marquiswhoswho.com.
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