In a special meeting of the Skokie Park District park board on Thursday, June 3, the four sitting commissioners chose Ezra Jaffe as the board’s fifth commissioner. Jaffe will be installed at the next monthly meeting of the board of commissioners on June 15.

The open seat was vacated by Khemarey Khoeun in April after she was elected to the Village of Skokie board of trustees. Per board policy, vacancies are filled by appointment, by the majority of the remaining board members. The four remaining members subsequently interviewed several interested Skokie residents, choosing Jaffe at Thursday evening’s meeting. Jaffe will fill the last two years of Khoeun’s six year term. The seat will be up for election in 2023.

Jaffe is a three decade resident of Skokie and is a senior vice president at Wintrust Financial, having worked there since 2011. He is a board member of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, and is a high school cross country coach in Skokie. He was instrumental in the fundraising and naming of Laramie Park’s Caleb Field. You can find Jaffe running through Skokie Northshore Sculpture Park most mornings around 6 a.m. He and his wife Marla have three children and two grandchildren.

The district’s other commissioners are President Susan Aberman, Vice-President Mike Reid, Minal Desai and Mary Oshana. The board of commissioners meet at the Weber Leisure Center every third Tuesday of the month at 7 p.m.