How can we empower ourselves and our communities to make lasting social change?
Remaking Democracy is a guidebook for social change. We are at a watershed moment of rising fascism and rising seas: our institutions are failing us, health crises ravage our communities, and the natural world has been thrust into catastrophic climate freefall. Despair threatens to overtake hope in our visions of the future.
In these pages, organizers and teachers Danielle Chynoweth and Elizabeth Adams offer analysis and strategy for sustainable transformation. This accessible and practical resource presents case studies alongside a design toolkit that equips readers to participate in creating the abundant worlds we want. Remaking Democracy empowers us—individually and in groups—to make lasting social change on every level, so that we who are affected by systems can become their creators.
Paperback copies are now available at Rubber Rose or on Bookshop.org!
Danielle is a recognized leader in democratic organizing, media justice, and housing justice, with decades of experience building public, non-profit, business and grassroots projects.
Danielle currently serves as Cunningham Township Supervisor, Field Instructor of the University of Illinois School of Social Work, Chair of the Champaign County Continuum of Service Providers to the Homeless, Champaign Urbana Public Health Board member.
Since 2017, Danielle has greatly expanded Cunningham Township to serve thousands of residents, with a staff of thirty and budget of $6.5 million. She recently received $1.3M in funding to launch The Living Room, peer-led crisis respite for Champaign County. She created Champaign County’s Rental Assistance Consortium to prevent homelessness, acquired two apartment buildings for Bridge to Home family shelter, and nurtured a network of 60+ Solidarity Gardens. On the Housing Authority Board of Champaign County Danielle initiated two new reentry houses operated by First Followers and WIN Recovery.
As Organizing Director at Media Justice, she coordinated a national network of racial justice leaders to win prison phone justice and broadband expansion before the FCC. She was the Director of the Illinois Champaign for Prison Phone Justice winning one of the lowest cost of calls from prisons in the country. She coordinated the national campaign that won passage of the Local Community Radio Act in 2010.
Danielle co-founded the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center, which has sponsored over 60 media justice projects internationally. For 15 years she was Vice President and partner of Pixo Tech.
Danielle managed the campaign for Carol Ammons for State Representative in 2014 mobilizing a record number of new voters. From 2001-2008, she served on Urbana’s City Council, spearheading the creation of the Urbana Public Arts program and creating a living wage ordinance, passive solar affordable housing, and police oversight.
Since 1995, Danielle has taught at the School for Designing a Society, a 43-year-old international project. She has presented on social change in Thailand, Burma, Italy, and Kenya, as an Evans Scholar at Evergreen State College, at New School University, and throughout the U.S.
Awards: Women Making Waves (2025), McKinley Foundation Social Justice Award (2018) Woman of the Year (2011).
Education: MA in Political Science, New School; BA in Political Science & Fine Arts, New College