Jenna Leving Jacobson, a college Spanish teacher and anti-Second Amendment activist, is running for Oak Park trustee on a platform of providing more mental health counseling to village residents struggling with Donald J. Trump’s election as President of the United States.
In an interview with the Wednesday Journal, Jacobson said that along with building more taxpayer-subsidized “Section 8” housing in Oak Park and banning gun ownership and natural gas usage in the village, “mental health support” for dispirited Kamala Harris voters was a top priority.
“The Oak Park Public Health Department is sometimes taken for granted and needs to be fully funded and supported, especially as things could change nationally under a new presidency,” the Wednesday Journal wrote, relating its interview with Jacobson.
The 2025 Village of Oak Park budget for its public health department was $1,199,886.
On its web site, the department claims it “identifies community problems and potential epidemics, develops health policies, enforces local ordinances and links residents to or provides a wide range of direct services.” It does not currrently provide mental health counseling.
Jacobson, age 40, announced her candidacy on Nov. 18, promising “a more just, sustainable future” for Oak Park.
In Feb. 2022, Jacobson said Trump supporters were behind efforts to end student mask mandates at Oak Park School District 97, one of the state’s last pro-mask hold-outs.
“I am concerned about the mounting pressure to no longer require masks in D97 schools, that such efforts are largely initiated and funded by outside, right-wing groups with agendas beyond just lifting mask restrictions,” she wrote.
In Sept. 2024, health data publisher the Cochrane Library reviewed 78 studies of mask usage and found they have zero impact in stopping the spread of respiratory viruses.
“There’s still no evidence that masks are effective during a pandemic,” said Dr. Tom Jefferson, who authored the study.
Jacobson has been an adjunct professor at Dominican University since 2017. She’s a native of north suburban Deerfield.
Jacobson is one of five candidates running to fill three open trustee spots in the April 1, 2025 election. The others are software engineer Joshua Vanderberg, chemist Jim Taglia and incumbents, lawyer Lucia Robinson and political activist Chibuike Enyia.
