Columbia College Chicago Theatre alum Precious Brady-Davis ’13 has been named to Out magazine’s 2025 Out100 list, honoring her as one of “the LGBTQ+ people making the world bolder and brighter in 2025.”

As previously reported in this blog, Brady-Davis, who graduated from Columbia College Chicago with an Interdisciplinary BA in Theatre and Liberal Education, is the first Black transgender woman elected to public office in Cook County, Illinois. She was elected as a Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago commissioner in 2024, after being appointed to the MWRD Board of Commissioners by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker to fill a vacant seat in 2023. Brady-Davis earned her recognition by Out for her leadership in public service, environmental advocacy, and social justice, reports Windy City Times, Chicago’s premier LGBT news site.

“Now running for reelection, she’s tasked with protecting the drinking water of more than 5 million people, safeguarding Lake Michigan, and advancing climate-resilient infrastructure,” Out notes about Brady-Davis. “She is also chief strategy officer for Chicago’s Center on Halsted, the Midwest’s largest LGBTQ+ community center.”

“To be named to the Out100 is not just a personal honor, but a powerful affirmation of the visibility and resilience of Black transgender women in leadership,” Brady-Davis told Windy City Times. “This recognition underscores the critical importance of having diverse voices at the table, especially in environmental policy and public service.”

Brady-Davis — who came to Chicago from Lincoln, Nebraska, to study at the Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department — served for three years as the assistant director of diversity recruitment initiatives at Columbia College Chicago, implementing the campus-wide diversity initiative and providing leadership and oversight of national diversity recruitment and inclusion policy initiatives.

As previously reported in this blog, Brady-Davis’s memoir, I Have Always Been Me, was published in July of 2021 by Topple Books, an imprint of Amazon Publishing. Topple’s editor is former Columbia College film and video program student Joey Soloway, Emmy Award-winning creator of the Amazon television series Transparent.