Maria Galo is a former journalist and long-time community volunteer who has lived in Palatine since 1996. She has been Palatine Township's Democratic Committeeperson since February 2020. Currently chief of staff for Cook County Commissioner Maggie Trevor, she is a former staff reporter and assistant metro editor for the Chicago Tribune, and a former national editor and copy editor for the Daily Herald. Like many women, she became politically active after the 2016 General Election. She began her political work by canvassing extensively for Sean Casten's successful 2018 campaign to replace Peter Roskam in the U.S. 6th Congressional District in Illinois, and for Maggie Trevor's 2018 and 2020 campaigns for the Illinois' 54th House District. She was a Cub Scout den leader, committee chair of Cub Scout Pack 332, a recruitment chair for Boy Scout Troop 209, and a board member of Holy Family Academy in Inverness. In 2015 she founded Teen Learning Lab of Greater Chicago, a nonprofit that operated in Skokie and closed down during the pandemic. She and her husband, Rich Medina, have three adult children and a very large dog.