Deana Rutherford

Deana is a lifelong Chicagoan who has managed to turn her inability to shut up about systemic injustice into a career. She has worn a lot of hats at The People’s Lobby since signing up as a member in 2016. She transitioned from membership to staff in the spring of 2019 to start organizing Chicago gig workers to fight back against exploitation by big tech companies, an effort that has since blossomed into the Chicago Gig Alliance. In 2020, Deana used her experience in communications, organizing, digital organizing, and design to help The People’s Lobby transition to a quarantine-friendly model of relational organizing, and has since expanded her role into conducting speaker trainings, writing one-pagers/talking points/op-eds/emails/grants/etc, and shaping the public narrative around all of The People’s Lobby’s issue campaigns. Deana also serves as the photographer for many of The People’s Lobby’s events. Her favorite pump up song is “Laugh, Love, Fuck” by The Coup.