About Dion & The Work
The work came before the title.
From helping young people find their civic voice to advancing public-health approaches to violence prevention and demanding accountable policing, Dion McGill has built a record around one idea: people closest to a problem should have power in solving it.
A life of service
Teacher. Veteran. Advocate. Councilor.
Dion is a lifelong Chicagoan, U.S. Army National Guard veteran who served in Afghanistan, former public school teacher, public-health professional, and elected member of Chicago’s 7th Police District Council.
The through-line is not a job title. It is helping communities turn experience into voice, voice into policy, and policy into change.
The through-line
Years of organizing, teaching, and public service.
Student voice at Henderson
Before Dion lived in Englewood, he was already working alongside young people at Charles R. Henderson Elementary. Through Student Voices, students learned how advocacy works, identified issues affecting their school and neighborhood, and practiced using their voices in public. After violence touched the school community in 2016, Henderson students organized a peace march and rally. Dion documented that work and stood with students as they called for safety and change.
Violence prevention beyond policing
At the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence and later through Strengthening Chicago’s Youth at Lurie Children’s Hospital, Dion worked at the intersection of gun-violence prevention, public health, coalition building, and community education. That experience still shapes his insistence that real safety also requires strong schools, opportunity, health care, youth investment, violence intervention, and restorative justice.
Building community oversight
Elected to the 7th Police District Council in 2023, Dion has worked to make a brand-new public office useful: accessible meetings, candid communication, close policy review, and pressure for measurable progress on police accountability and community safety.
District Council work
Oversight that asks hard questions and follows through.
Rejecting the felony bypass
Dion publicly opposed a proposal that would have weakened the promise of meaningful community review in serious police-discipline cases.
Assessing CPD leadership on Chicago Tonight
Dion pressed for faster consent-decree compliance, stronger transparency, a productive relationship with COPA, and a police superintendent accessible to District Councils.
Defining public safety beyond a photo opportunity
In explaining why he does not participate in National Night Out, Dion called for tangible reform and greater visibility for violence-prevention workers, healers, restorative-justice practitioners, and youth.
Looking past easy answers on violence
Dion examined reductions in Memorial Day violence without giving any one institution all the credit, connecting the story to community-based prevention and long-term investment.
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