Mary, a native of Missouri, has been an Illinois resident since 1975. She is presently the elected County Treasurer of Tazewell County, which is one of the largest counties in Illinois.  Mary began her career in local government in 1984. She served in the Treasurer’s Office for 5 years before she was appointed Chief Deputy and served in that capacity for 21 years. She was elected Treasurer of Tazewell County Illinois in 2010.  She also holds the position of Investment Officer for Tazewell County.

Mary serves on many committees within the County. Presently, she is a Pekin Rotary Member, past board member of the Salvation Army, served as the Treasurer of the Altrusa Club, and the Past President of the American Businesswomen’s Association of Pekin. Mary also served as an elected Trustee for Cincinnati Township. She is currently a member of the Illinois Treasurer’s Association.

Mary and her family currently reside in Pekin, Illinois.

Bill began his career in the fire service as an EMT in 1988. He went on to become a paramedic the following year while working as an EMT for a private ambulance company. Bill joined the Calumet City Fire Department in May of 1990. He has held the position of firefighter/paramedic, engineer, lieutenant, and chief of the department, a position he has held since 2003. In addition to the department responsibilities Bill serves as a Mutual Aid Adviser for MABAS Division 24, and is a member of the Third District Chief’s Organization where he chairs the Finance committee.

Bill was first elected to his pension board in 1992. He has held the positions of trustee, secretary, and president. Bill was elected to the IPPFA board of Directors in 1995 he has served continuously on the board since that time. He currently holds the position of treasurer for the board.

Bill holds an Associate degree from South Suburban College and a Bachelors of Science from Southern Illinois University; he also earned a certificate in the Essentials of Investment Consulting from the Investment Management Consultants Association. This course was developed in conjunction with the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania. Bill currently works with Wall and Associates providing investment advisory services.

Bill presently resides in Calumet City with his wife Susan and their 3 boys Billy, Joshua, and Andrew.

PFA Director and now has over 15 years with IPPFA as a Director.

Robert Podgorny is a past president of NCPERS, serving in that position from May 2004 to May 2008. He is the past First Vice President of Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police Lodge # 7.

Mr. Podgorny served as a Chicago Police Officer for over 33 years. He was instrumental in obtaining collective bargaining rights for the police officers of Chicago. In addition to his collective bargaining expertise, Mr. Podgorny dealt with all medical/health-related issues and disabilities of Chicago police officers. Mr. Podgorny has chaired numerous committees for the F.O.P. Lodge #7 and served on many NCPERS committees.

Dan Collins has been an elected trustee with the Skokie Firefighter Pension Board since 2000. Dan has served the board as a trustee-at-large, secretary and currently as president. Once elected as board president, Dan made it a priority to contract with a third party accounting firm, actuarial service and outside counsel. Dan then commissioned studies utilized to effectively change funding policy which has kept their fund on a positive course.

Mr. Collins began his full-time firefighting career with the Village of Oak Park before accepting a position with the Skokie Fire Department in 1999. In 2007, Dan was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. Dan is a proud member of IAFF Local 3033 and the AFFI. He has been a licensed paramedic since 1996, is certified in all rescue disciplines and has served as a member of the MABAS Division 3 Technical Rescue Team.

Mr. Collins began teaching the Retirement Coordinator course with the IPPFA in 2015. Dan believes that education is the key to success with regards to pension related public policy. He further believes that all American workers deserve a pension and real retirement security.

Dan’s interest in pension security and employee rights began while he was working his way through the University of Illinois at Chicago for a respondent workers compensation firm. While performing research and covering the Chicago Industrial Commission call, Dan realized that public safety workers were not giving themselves enough credit for the difficult jobs they perform. Dan noted that public safety workers often downplayed the severity of their injuries and the toll the job took on them and their families. Dan became a staunch advocate long before his own public safety career began.

Dan is a lifelong Chicagoan and resides with his wife, Julie, and their two children in the southwest side neighborhood of Beverly. In 2009, Dan and Julie adopted their children, Kirsten and Danny, at the ages of 13 and 9 after a period of fostering. The Collins family is actively involved with several foster child charities. Their hope is to give as many adversely affected children of the foster care system a real chance at success.

Shawn Curry started his police work in 1996 at the Woodford County Sheriff’s Office. In 2004, Mr. Curry left Woodford County to start work with the Peoria Police Department.

Mr. Curry has held various positions ranging in work as a certified correctional officer, police officer, arson investigator, elderly service officer and lead homicide investigator. He has served on past union boards for both the FOP and PBA, and he is the current president of the Peoria Pension Fund. Today, he is assigned to the Criminal Investigations Division under the Violent Crime Unit.

Dan started work for the O’Fallon Police department in 1984. He then went to the St Clair County Sheriff’s Police Department in 1986 as a patrol officer. In 1987 he started work as a police officer in Collinsville, IL and was elected to the pension board in 1988. He retired from Collinsville Police Department in 2006. Dan then continued on the pension board as the retired officer for the Collinsville Police Pension Fund. He has been the pension board president since 1998.

Mark became a police officer on October 31, 1977 after serving four years in the Marine Corps and had been assigned as department pilot, underwater recovery diver, field training officer, tactical officer, narcotics agent and various investigation teams. Mark has taught NIMS classes through both Illinois Fire Safety Institute and FEMA as an independent contractor. Mark retired from Rock Island Police Department in October 2010 and became Chief of Police in Coal Valley, Illinois. Mark assisted in forming a public safety dive team which meets the Class 1 FEMA dive team standards and volunteers as an instructor for public safety diving to police and fire department dive teams. His team has responded to requests for divers from ISP, and several police and fire agencies throughout Illinois and Iowa and is listed as a resource through ILEAS.

He became involved in police pensions as a trustee in 1980 and has served continuously on the Rock Island Police Pension Board until 2010. He was responsible for recruiting the Rock Island Police and Fire Pension boards to become members of the IPPFA. He is actively recruiting other Boards to join the organization.

As a Director of the IPPFA, Mark has served on the legislative committee and was Secretary / Treasurer of the IPPFA Political Action Committee. He is also the author of several articles for

the IPPFA newsletter.

Mark is married and has one son. He received an Associate degree in Law Enforcement Technology from Black Hawk College and a B.A. in Business Administration from Marycrest College. His post graduate work was completed at the University of Iowa in Business Administration and Multimedia Presentations.

Born in Chicago, James McNamee began his career in law enforcement in 1979 as a police officer for the Village of Barrington. In 1983, Mr. McNamee was elected to the Barrington Police Pension Board as a trustee. During his term as trustee, McNamee quickly saw the need for training and education for all trustees of pension boards. Taking action, Mr. McNamee went to work to form the Illinois Police Fund Association now known as the Illinois Public Pension Fund Association.

Under Mr. McNamee’s leadership, the IPPFA grew to fifty funds in its first year. Mr. McNamee had the vision to expand the IPPFA to include Unions and Teacher Funds and his efforts have dramatically expanded the association’s membership. The Illinois Public Pension Fund Association has grown into the largest organization of its kind in the country with more than 450 pension funds as members.

Mr. McNamee continued to serve as a police officer and field training officer for the Village of Barrington for nearly 30 years before retiring in 2007. He continues to assist with legislative pension fund issues by supporting the Coalition Group and chairing the Pension Working Group with help of The Office of the State Treasurer. The Pension Working Group helps to review the performance of investment managers and consultants, along with helping to develop uniform standards for comparing the costs of investment services.

Mr. McNamee was instrumental in leading the push for many changes in pension board procedures and policies which helped to develop the standards under which they operate today. He was also involved in drafting and passing important legislative changes, including comprehensive investment law changes allowing for expanded investment authority to the pension boards. Along with legislative changes, Mr. McNamee helped to develop the IPPFA 457 Defined Contribution Plan and has since become a leader in benefit development for municipalities, coming up with many new programs and ideas that are now being implemented in the state.