Mboka Mwilambwe

Mwilambwe was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.[2] His father worked for Unicef and Mwilambwe lived in various countries as a youth with stays in Senegal, Ivory Coast, and the Republic of the Congo.[2] In 1990, he moved to central Illinois to attend Illinois State University earning a B.S. in mathematics in 1994 and a M.S. in education in 1996.[2] After school, he accepted a position as the assistant director of the Office of Equal Access and Opportunity at Illinois State University.[2] In 2008, he became a U.S. Citizen.[2] In 2011, he was appointed by then-mayor Steve Stockton to fill a vacancy in Ward 3 on the Bloomington City Council.[3] He was re-elected to a full four-year term on the City Council in 2013 and 2017.[3] Since 2019, he has served as mayor pro tem.[1]

In 2021, he ran for mayor against Mike Straza, Jackie Gunderson, and write-in candidate Misty Metroz.[1] On April 6, 2021, he very narrowly won the election succeeding Tari Renner, who did not seek a third term as mayor.[4][5] He was sworn in on May 1, 2021[4] becoming Bloomington's first African-American mayor since its founding in 1830.[6] (In 2019, Bloomington was 73.0% white, 10.2% Black, 8.0% Asian, 6.1% Latino, and 2.2% multi-racial).[7] Top items on his agenda include an emphasis on infrastructure, improving financial efficiency,[8] and facilitating an atmosphere where people can debate in a civil manner.[2]

Mwilambwe is married to fellow Illinois State University graduate Stacey Mwilambwe (B.S. ’94, M.S. ’96) who is the director of University Housing Services.[2] He speaks French, Swahili and Lingala.[9]