Otis Woods professional career has been defined by passion. His experiences growing up on the South side of Chicago and living in a race-based society are the reasons why he strongly identifies as a black man that is connected to the descendants of America chattel slavery. This identity is his fundamental reason why he is running for the 16th ward alderman for Chicago city council.
While studying Radiologic Sciences at SIU-C, he coordinated a mentoring program called Young Forever on the East side of Carbondale. This program's mission was to level the playing field for students from low socio-economic communities. During this program, he had the chance to mentor Gabe. Gabe was shy and the type that wanted to stand on the wall during a party. Mr. Woods’s presence improved Gabe’s confidence academically and socially. Observing this transformation that was occurring with the mentees in the program, he wanted to implement his theory of change in the classroom and on the South side of Chicago.
Otis Woods graduated with his Bachelor’s degree in Radiologic Science and joined Teach For America in effort to impact communities that reflected his identity. He landed at CICS Longwood Middle School as an 8th grade science teacher. Mr. Woods just didn’t enter the classroom to teach science content but wanted to impact young black boys outside the four walls of the school building. Therefore, he brought the CHAMPS male mentoring program to his middle school. CHAMPS stands for “ Culturally Helping and Making Positive Success” and through CHAMPS Mr. Woods was able to empower, educate, and expose young black men. Woods has facilitated workshops on metacognition, reflection practices, and political strategies to the group of men he has mentored.
The classroom is definitely a great place to start implementing your theory of change but Mr. Woods understands that his theory of change needs to be implemented in different systems in order to combat systemic racism. This is a reason why he became a grassroot organizer at the Worker’s Center For Racial Justice. The fact that most black people have some sort of criminal background is the reason he organizes formerly incarcerated individuals to get living wage jobs. Woods has been to Springfield several times to lobby for SAFER’S Community Act to get passed through the house and facilitated several workshops educating the community about SAFER.
Currently, Otis Woods is the community representative on the local school council board at Englewood STEM High School and fellow at the Mayor’s Office of Racial Equity His initiatives are to support teachers of color, decrease burnout, and increase the retention of teachers of color. This passion led him to be running for the 16th ward alderman for Chicago City Council.