Alumni

Public Service: For Alumni, It's a Calling

MICHAEL BELSKY ’83
Mayor, Highland Park, Illinois

“I went [to Lake Forest] with an interest in state and local government,” says Michael Belsky, the current mayor of Highland Park, Illinois. “I came out just enthusiastic and passionate about it.”

Belsky credits professors Paul Fischer (politics) and Michael Ebner (history) for stimulating his interest in city planning.  Belsky was one of the first two students to participate in a public policy analysis program, from which he emerged with a bachelor’s degree from Lake Forest and a master’s degree from the University of Chicago in five years.

In addition to his duties as mayor, Belsky is also a group managing director at Fitch Bond Ratings, where he still performs the same type of research he learned in professor Rosemary Hale’s regional economics class. “She said, ‘If you understand the finances of government, you’ll understand government,’” Belsky says. “I took that and literally made it a career.”

After settling in Highland Park, Belsky gradually became involved in city politics. In 1995, he began an eight-year stint on the city council before being elected mayor in 2003, garnering nearly 70 percent of the vote.

Since assuming office, Belsky has introduced innovative measures around affordable housing to preserve the community’s diversity and ensure that city employees can live where they work.

“What I went in to Lake Forest to get, I use every day,” says Belsky, who still consults history professor Michael Ebner for reading recommendations before he visits a new city. “It was a great education.”

"What I went in to Lake Forest to get, I use every day, " says Belsky.  "It was a great education."