2025 Champions Award honoree

This newsletter was sent to our Saint Leonard’s community email subscribers on October 10, 2025. If you would like to receive future news from Saint Leonard’s, join us and subscribe to receive email updates.


On the night of October 23, Saint Leonard’s will honor Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle with the 2025 Champions Award at the Heart of Saint Leonard’s: A Night of Fellowship. We hope you can join us. Purchase your ticket here.

President Preckwinkle is a leader and visionary who believes that investing in people promotes healthier and safer communities across Cook County.

She is committed to reimagining our justice system with an approach that addresses mental health issues, substance use and addiction as illnesses to be treated – not crimes to be punished.

President Preckwinkle has worked to expand the scope of the Justice Advisory Council to coordinate and implement justice reform and public safety policy. She has worked with other elected county officials to safely reduce the population of the Cook County Jail and Juvenile Temporary Detention Center while preserving public safety, reducing recidivism and promoting fair and equitable access to justice.

She has transformed county government through increased fiscal responsibility, transparency and improved services. As the top executive in Cook County, the nation’s second-most populous county, President Preckwinkle has used the Affordable Care Act to create CountyCare, a managed-care program for Medicaid-eligible residents. Cook County provides quality care to more than 500,000 individuals through the health system and health plan.

President Preckwinkle is no stranger to the Saint Leonard’s Community. When we opened Grace House 31 years ago, she took the residents on a weekend retreat to Adrian, Michigan so they could find time, space and peace. She has spoken at our high school graduation that puts people on their road to success. champion of our shared cause.

And she even is a former colleague of our own Bob Dougherty, when they were both teachers at Aquinas High School on the South Shore. She always challenged her students to do better and put them in a position to succeed.

That is what champions do.

Join us October 23 when we honor President Preckwinkle for being a champion of our shared cause.