Rosa Escareño

Rosa Escareño is currently the Interim General Superintendent & CEO at the Chicago Park District. Prior to this, they served as the Deputy Chief Operating Officer at the City of Chicago from April 2010 to July 2017. In this role, they oversaw day-to-day operations for several government agencies, including the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection, Department of Planning and Development, Chicago Department of Buildings, Chicago Department of Public Health, Chicago Department of Family and Support Services, Chicago Public Library, Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, and Chicago Animal Care and Control. Rosa was also responsible for the fiscal, operations and performance management of nearly $1 billion budgeted and 2,500 employees.

During their time at the City of Chicago, Rosa successfully administered Mayoral citywide initiatives including healthcare expansion saving $10MM while enhancing services, overseeing library system service expansion, schedule changes and rebalancing of the workforce, and operationalizing homeless placement and street-outreach programs. Rosa also established business friendly reforms including license reduction from 117 to 40, and licensing automation/paperless strategy. In addition, they coordinated efforts and managed various civic, legislative/community stakeholder groups in directing efforts to devise and implement innovative shared-economy mandates regulating Transportation Network Providers “ride-sharing”; generated more than $50MM in annual revenue as well as new regulation for Short-term Rental Intermediaries “shared housing” and Advertising Platforms. In times of crisis, they governed by prioritizing public safety, setting sound government and fiscal responsibility, and devising clear/consistent communication across agencies.

Rosa Escareño has a Masters in Communication from Northwestern University and a BA in Communication from Loyola University Chicago.

Some direct reports include Dana Zilinski - Director, Revenue, Heather Gleason - Director, Planning & Construction, and M. Andre' Taylor - Director, Risk Management.