Nancy Rotering is serving her fourth term as Mayor of Highland Park, the community where she grew up and where she and her husband, Rob, raised their four sons. Since first joining the City Council in 2009 and becoming Highland Park’s first woman Mayor in 2011, Nancy has focused on a simple goal: making local government work for the people it serves.
Under Nancy’s leadership, Highland Park has balanced 16 consecutive City budgets and maintained its Aaa bond rating, the highest rating possible. The City has increased its investments in streets, water mains, sewers and sidewalks; strengthened public safety and emergency preparedness; supported local businesses and economic development; advanced sustainability; and worked to keep Highland Park a welcoming, vibrant community for people of all ages.
Nancy believes a mayor’s job is to listen, bring people together and get things done. When repeated power outages disrupted homes and businesses, she held ComEd accountable and worked with state leaders to secure millions of dollars in infrastructure improvements and greater reliability for Highland Park and the surrounding region. When recurring flooding affected neighborhoods, she worked with Lake County and City staff to advance long-term stormwater solutions.
Public safety has been a defining responsibility of Nancy’s service. Following the Sandy Hook tragedy, she led the City Council in passing Highland Park’s ban on assault weapons, which survived legal challenges up to the U.S. Supreme Court. After the Highland Park shooting, Nancy worked alongside first responders, community organizations, residents and other levels of government as Highland Park responded, grieved, and began the long journey forward. In 2023, after nearly a decade of advocacy, Illinois enacted a statewide assault weapons ban.
Nancy has also worked to make sure residents can get help when they need it. After creating the Highland Park Human Services task force to help identify unmet resident needs, she founded the North Suburban Legal Aid Clinic in 2015. What began as a local response to improve access to justice has grown into an organization providing free legal assistance in housing, immigration and domestic violence matters to thousands of people throughout the region.
Nancy’s relationships with other mayors and leaders across Illinois have helped give Highland Park a strong voice beyond its borders and brought resources, expertise and partnerships back to the community. She recently completed a term as Chair of the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus, representing Chicago and 274 surrounding municipalities, and continues to serve on its Executive Committee. She represents Lake County on the Board of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, is a member of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and previously served as President of the Northwest Municipal Conference.
An attorney for more than 35 years, Nancy began her legal career at McDermott Will & Emery in Chicago. She is also an adjunct lecturer in social policy at Northwestern University, where she was named Outstanding Instructor by the School of Education and Social Policy in 2022.
Nancy earned her J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, her M.B.A. from Northwestern University, and her B.A. in Economics from Stanford University. For Nancy, public service has always started and ended in Highland Park: listening to residents, solving problems, protecting the community, and working to make the city she has always called home even stronger for the next generation.