PHOTO COURTESY KIM VILLANUEVA
Kim Villanueva of Springfield is the newly elected president of the National Organization for Women (NOW). She is moving to Washington, D.C., to become the paid CEO of NOW after serving in a volunteer capacity with the organization for decades. She previously worked at the Illinois Community College Trustees Association for 40 years as director of communication. Since joining NOW in 1987, she’s served in state and national leadership roles including president of the Illinois state chapter, chair of NOW’s National Election Committee and as a national board member.
Founded in 1966, NOW is a grassroots organization dedicated to women’s rights with 37 state chapters and local chapters in every state. Its six core issues are reproductive rights and justice, ending violence against women, economic justice, LGBTQIA+ rights, racial justice and constitutional equality. Villanueva and Rose Brunache, vice president-elect, ran as a slate and won with 77% of the vote by the membership. Brunache is currently president of the NOW Washington, D.C., chapter. They will serve four-year terms.
“Kim has been at the heart of NOW,” said Laura Welch, the current state president of Illinois NOW. Villanueva was one of the youngest-ever state presidents when she was elected Illinois chapter president in 1989 at the age of 25. She’s been a tireless advocate ever since, Welch said.
Over the years, Villanueva organized a Take Back the Night rally at the Old State Capitol that raised funds for local domestic violence and sexual assault agencies, and she helped build bipartisan coalitions on sexual harassment and family medical leave legislation. She chaired the Illinois NOW Political Action Committee, registering voters and organizing phone banks to elect Carol Moseley Braun in 1992 as the first African American woman in the U.S. Senate. Villanueva was the downstate organizer for the 2013 March on Springfield for Marriage Equality and the 2018 campaign to ratify the ERA in Illinois, which she calls one of her proudest moments. During the last decade, she’s served on numerous national NOW boards and committees.
Welch said Villanueva has strong communication skills and business acumen, understands the grassroots nature of the organization, has an easy way of explaining things and leads with kindness and grace. Her pledge to refocus the organization on its membership is a major reason she won, according to Welch.
Villanueva said she is pleased about traveling and meeting with members across the country and looks forward to attending the New York and New Jersey state conferences this fall. She wants to make a difference and help empower members. One example is the initiative for active chapters to adopt a chapter in another state and help it be successful.
“The biggest challenges are counteracting inertia and the feeling they can’t do anything,” Villanueva told Illinois Times. She cites positive examples of NOW members making a difference, such as a NOW chapter in the red state of Idaho combating book bans in a community.
“Little steps make a big difference,” said Villanueva. NOW is an action-oriented organization and getting activists to become advocates is a priority, said Welch. NOW encourages members to not only attend rallies and marches but also engage with their elected officials by making phone calls, signing a witness slip and thanking legislators.
Villanueva credits her father, A.B. Villanueva, a longtime professor of political science at Western Illinois University, for stimulating her interest in politics. He immigrated from the Philippines, and her family regularly discussed current events at the dinner table.
In her previous full-time job with the Illinois Community College Trustees Association, Villanueva advocated for the nation’s third-largest community college system and helped raise the visibility of community colleges as important educational institutions. Her responsibilities included facilitating board retreats and staffing the association’s awards, bylaws, executive and nominating committees. She said collaboration, confidentiality, transparency, mutual respect, inclusivity and active listening were at the heart of her four decades of work with the association and she plans to bring these values to her leadership role with NOW.
Villanueva has contributed to the community through service with many other organizations. She was the founding cochair of the Central Illinois Gay and Lesbian Task Force, president of the Springfield YWCA, chair of the UIS Intercollegiate Athletics and Recreation Committee, president of the Springfield Area Arts Council and president of the Abraham Lincoln Unitarian Universalist Congregation.
Susan Bramlet-Lavin, executive director of Illinois NOW, said Illinois is fortunate to have a state government that takes women’s issues seriously. She noted that in contrast, nearly all the issues of concern to NOW are under attack at the federal level: reproductive rights, economic justice, SNAP benefits, pay equity, DEI, LGBTQ issues, women’s voting rights and more. She said it is a challenging time to lead the nation’s largest feminist grassroots organization.
“Kim is the most capable person I’ve ever known,” Bramlet-Lavin told Illinois Times. “She knows how to talk with people and is a great listener. She gives people hope.”
Karen Ackerman Witter retired from a 35-year career in Illinois state government and is a frequent contributor to Illinois Times. As a former policy adviser to Gov. James R. Thompson, she witnessed many of the controversial policy issues that Kim Villanueva has been involved with over the years, such as the debate over ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment.