Christopher J. Lilly

Christopher J. Lilly

Trustee/Chairperson of License & Ordinance Committee

Career

While working as a janitor at Rhodes, he double-majored in English and Secondary Education, leading him to earn his professional educator’s license and first job at Holy Cross before being hired at Leyden High Schools, District 212, as a teacher and coach. After 20 years of teaching/department chair work at the high school level, Chris moved on to teach at the university level. He is currently the Director of Advanced Professional Programs for the National College of Education at NLU. He is the author of a book on literacy coaching and numerous articles in peer-reviewed educational journals which he has presented at several national and international educational conferences.

Community Service

Chris started out serving River Grove in the Youth Government program (1984), as a little league and softball umpire (1988-92), then became Recreation Director (2005-6), and most recently served as a River Grove Fire and Police Commissioner (2017-19). He has been a member of the River Grove Lions Club since 2004 and is a lifelong member of St. Cyprian Church. He has also served on the Boards of Education for Rhodes, St. Cyprian, Guerin College Prep, and the Catalyst Schools in Chicago.

Personal

Christopher J. Lilly grew up on Finley Avenue with his parents and his sister Marjie. He attended Rhodes Elementary School and Holy Cross High School before going to DePaul University. Chris subsequently went on to earn an M.Ed. in Human Development and Learning through DePaul’s partnership with the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute and a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from Concordia University. Chris and Tina Lilly have been married since 1994 and have raised three children in River Grove: Joe (Program Manager, Park District of Oak Park), Matt (Cancer Research, Tempus Labs), and Samantha (Kohl’s Children’s Museum). His mother, Connie, is retired and still lives in the house on Finley Ave. where she happily counts many neighbors as old friends