As the granddaughter of Chinese immigrants who fought deportation under the Chinese Exclusion Acts, Representative Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz’s commitment to public service and sense of justice was instilled at an early age.
Representative Gong-Gershowitz’s father, a veteran, participated in the vanguard of the civil rights movement. Her mother was a leader in the women’s movement, bringing Jennifer with her to march for the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s.
Born and raised in Oak Park, Illinois, Representative Gong-Gershowitz earned her Bachelor’s degree from Indiana University, her law degree from Loyola University Chicago School of Law, and became the first American lawyer to earn a Masters Degree in International Human Rights Law from Northwestern University, publishing her research on gendered war crimes in the Northwestern Journal of Human Rights.
Representative Gong-Gershowitz’s own family history inspired her pro bono work as an attorney at Winston & Strawn where she took on transnational human traffickers that exploited women and children. She fought and won in federal court to protect victims of child trafficking and forced marriage. She served as the first immigration law practice director of the North Suburban Legal Aid Clinic, where she built greater capacity to represent low-income residents of the community with family-based petitions and cases involving victims of severe crime, including domestic violence. Jennifer’s experience as a lawyer and advocate guides her work today in the Illinois General Assembly.
Representative Gong-Gershowitz has represented the 17th District in the Illinois House since 2019. She currently serves as Chair of the House Judiciary – Civil Committee, Vice Chair of the Immigration & Human Rights Committee, and is a member of the Appropriations – Higher Education; Cybersecurity, Data, Analytics, & IT; Financial Institutions & Licensing; and Higher Education committees.
Since 2019, Representative Gong-Gershowitz has passed landmark legislation across a broad range of policy priorities, including the landmark Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History Act (TEAACH), which made Illinois the first state in the nation to ensure Asian American history is taught in K-12 public schools.
Representative Gong-Gershowitz has been a leader in advocating for common sense gun safety laws. She co-sponsored the Protect Illinois Communities Act to ban assault-style weapons and passed the Firearm Industry Responsibility Act (FIRA), which holds gun manufacturers accountable for dangerous sales and marketing tactics that contribute to real world violence.
As the Judiciary – Civil Committee Chair, she has passed several key pieces of AI legislation that serve as models for states across the country working to protect people against the unauthorized or abusive use of new AI technologies. These include bills addressing civil liability for the nonconsensual dissemination of deepfake sexual images and criminal penalties for deepfake child pornography.