Biography

(quoted directly from his campaign site)

Charles Wheelan is a lecturer in public policy at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. He teaches several master’s level courses on understanding the policy process, and was voted Professor of the Year in a Non-Core Course by the Harris School student body for the 2004-’05 academic year.

Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Chicago, Wheelan was Director of Policy and Communications for Chicago Metropolis 2020, a business-backed civic group promoting healthy regional growth in the Chicago area.

From 1997 to 2002, he was the Midwest correspondent for The Economist, where his story on America’s burgeoning ex-convict population was the August 10, 2002, cover story. He has also written for the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal.

Wheelan’s first book, “Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science,” was published by W.W. Norton & Company in 2002. An accessible and entertaining introduction to economics for lay readers, it was released in paperback in September 2003 and has been published in seven languages. He’s also the author of a series of essays on Chicago that accompany the photographs of renowned landscape photographer Terry Evans in the book “Revealing Chicago: An Aerial Portrait.” He’s currently working on a public policy textbook.

Wheelan is also a regular contributor to the “Motley Fool Radio Show” on National Public Radio and to the “Eight Forty-Eight” program on WBEZ, Chicago Public Radio. He lives in Chicago with his wife and three children.

Fundraising and financiers

As of January 2, 2009, he has raised $100,000 for the race,Lamisil according to the Chicago Sun-Times.