Meet Cam

Why He’s a Water Leader

Cam served as President Barack Obama’s “Great Lakes Czar” in Washington, D.C. and Chicago from 2009 until 2017. Cam was responsible for coordinating 11 federal departments, including the White House Council on Environmental Quality, EPA, and Corps of Engineers. He also served as the President’s liaison to Congress for the Great Lakes, where he successfully advocated with Democrats and Republicans alike for an annual $300 million program to fund restoration projects for the Great Lakes.

Previously, he served as President & CEO of the Alliance for the Great Lakes. Under his leadership, the Alliance started the Adopt-a-Beach® program with 10,000 volunteers around the region and won the American Bar Association’s Environmental Law & Policy Award, the first time in the honor’s history given to a non-profit advocacy organization.

Cam doesn’t back down from taking aggressive stances to defend the public’s interest in water. While at the Alliance, he successfully led the campaign to ban oil and gas drilling under Lake Michigan. He also beat back BP’s attempt to increase pollution discharges to Lake Michigan. Cam was also a litigator for the National Wildlife Federation and professor at the University of Michigan Law School. He started his career as a volunteer, doing organizing and beach cleanups.

This year is Cam’s first time running for public office.

Cam’s Values

The foundation for these qualifications is dedication to family. He is married to Dr. Katelyn Varhely, a child psychologist. Together they live in Evanston and have two children who they take to the beach regularly (when it’s warm enough). They live in a house his great grandparents bought in 1928. Cam grew up in Wilmette going to Gillson Park with his family.

His love of family extends to previous generations. Cam is an avid genealogist, having started Genoir, a small business dedicated to helping families tell their stories. He is the author of several books, including Confluence (2009) and The Better Part of Valor: Albert Drury and His First Vermont Cavalry (2017), about his ancestors’ encounters with history (including Lincoln, run-ins with Bugs Malone’s North Siders during Prohibition-era Chicago, and others).

Cam is the Vice President of the Democratic Party of Evanston, believing strongly that local Democratic parties have a critical role in beating back Trump’s agenda to divide our nation among racial, socioeconomic and other lines. He’s also a soccer dad!