Like any true sports hero in this city, the Alabama-raised Howard, 22, had to fight to get here. He played his third and final year of college football at Indiana (Big Ten, sure, but not exactly a powerhouse). And that was only after his first school, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, completely shut down its team. On draft day, Howard watched his name slip to the fifth round before the lowly Matt Forte–less Bears deemed him good enough for third on their running back depth chart.

Howard didn’t know too much about Chicago before he got here. “I thought we were going to be in the city,” he says, alluding to the place he spends most of his time, the Bears’ practice facility in Lake Forest. But Chicago seems just right for him. For starters, it’s home to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation, an organization he works with to honor his father, who died of the disease when Howard was 12. And then there’s the fact that we desperately need Howard—if we want Sundays in the fall to be any fun.

Looking back at the three games before he earned the starting running back role last year (a year in which he wound up being selected for the Pro Bowl), Howard says, “I feel like if I would’ve been playing a little bit earlier on in the season, I might have made a bigger impact in some of those games.” He’ll get his chance in 2017. —Mark Bazer

After that fateful meeting, every project undertaken by Heisler Hospitality—the group’s moniker is a portmanteau of its founders’ names—has been a hit. Bar DeVille, Queen Mary Tavern, and Estereo, to name just three, have succeeded because hospitality savant Eisler, 41, pounces on properties in buzzy areas and gives them distinct themes, like he did for the British-Indian beer hall Pub Royale or the upscale hunting lodge Sportsman’s Club. Heisner, 47, then handles the aesthetics, making sure the spaces look cool—at Estereo, the bathroom is covered in disco ball tiles—yet not kitschy.

Now the two are upping their culinary game. Bon Appétit named Pub Royale one of its 50 best new restaurants in 2016. Their new quasi-vegetarian West Loop spot Bad Hunter has won plaudits both in our pages and in the national press. And late last year, in a serious coup, the pair lured Michelin-starred chef Jared Wentworth away from his perch at Longman & Eagle to helm their Wicker Park restaurant Trench.

Next up, they’ll be taking over the former Smack Shack space in Google’s West Loop building and installing a cocktail bar with yet another high-profile new recruit, the legendary New York bartender Jim Meehan. Meehan and Eisler got to talking a while back, and it turns out Meehan’s from Chicago and had been looking for a way to return. See? Serendipity. —Carrie Schedler

Arvesu wasted no time. By 16, she was working as an intern at the Miami studio of the Spanish-language network Telemundo. In 2003 she switched to Univision, Telemundo’s main competitor, eventually moving to the network’s Chicago affiliate. By 2013, with multiple regional Emmys under her belt for news reporting, she had worked her way up to news director. In March, she and her news team won a prestigious Studs Terkel Award, and during Arvesu’s tenure, Univision’s 5 p.m. newscast was the most watched in Chicago among 18- to 49-year-olds—in any language. During this year’s February sweeps, nearly a third of the total share in that age group tuned in.

Early this year, Arvesu was promoted to vice president of content for Univision Chicago, an intensely demanding new position that oversees both the affiliate’s news operations and its creative services department, which handles branding and advertising. Arvesu has essentially been given a mandate to shape the future of one of the most influential media outlets in the country.

These days, Arvesu spends more time in meetings than on the set, but she likes to sneak into the control room whenever there’s breaking news. “It’s still my favorite place to be.” —Nissa Rhee

What Range Design does better than arguably any other firm in Chicago is make spaces for makers: an airy and inviting taproom for Logan Square’s Hopewell Brewing Co., for example, or the soon-to-be-completed ArtHouse in Gary, Indiana—the latest project by Theaster Gates, with whom Range Design created a groundbreaking installation for the 2010 Whitney Biennial. Currently, the architects are working on redoing the Skyline Showroom in the Merchandise Mart, collaborating with high-profile artists and designers to create an expanded space for customized consumer design. They’re also launching a new line of furniture: utilitarian, replicable, and—like everything the firm creates—utterly beautiful. —Anjulie Rao

The Cook County commissioner for the North Side’s 10th District says she’s “thought about” a bid for mayor in 2019, though she’s coy when asked if she’d run against Rahm Emanuel, whom she supported in 2011, or Jesús “Chuy” Garcia, with whom she championed a sick-leave law. A lot of people are hoping she will.

Gainer’s ambition is undeniable, but it’s ambition backed by accomplishments. Her position on the county board—which she readily admits is the “least sexy” unit of local government—has offered her an “enormous ability to get stuff done,” she says: “You’re talking to people all the time. You see and touch issues and you don’t get to avoid the hard things, but you also get to see the good stuff. It’s like being a community organizer, but more people return my calls.”

Foremost among those accomplishments: the creation of the Cook County Land Bank, a four-year-old program that acquires vacant properties in distressed neighborhoods and resells them to developers for rehabilitation and reuse. So far, Gainer says, more than 400 homes have been rehabbed by some 135 small developers, most of them black or Hispanic.

Gainer plans to run for the county board again in 2018. That would still give her time to enter the mayoral race. For now, she’s trying to embrace an aspect of the political arts she hasn’t spent much time focusing on: self-promotion. “We spend a lot of time doing things,” she says, “and now we’ve got to spend more time talking about everything we’ve done.” —Carol Felsenthal

A few years ago, she cofounded the SCOUT Chicago Festival, designed to introduce emerging Chicago talent to Hollywood agents and producers. Teri Dean, a senior vice president of casting at NBC, credits Ross and SCOUT Chicago with putting numerous local actors on her radar. “Marisa is a uniquely kind human being,” says Dean. “If she believes in somebody, she’ll do everything she can to make sure they’re seen in the best possible light.” Adds Marisa Paonessa, an agent who represents more than 350 Chicago-area actors: “We are extremely lucky to have her here. In my 12 years as an agent, there has never been this much work.”

Ross intends to keep it that way. “Chicago is a great city. You should be able to live here and do what you love.” —Brian Golden

Unlike his contemporaries in the booming streetwear scene, where jeans and T-shirts now command couture-level prices, FreshGoods keeps his tees, hoodies, and jerseys affordable. (His Obama items go for between $35 and $150 at thankuobama.us.) The clothes sell out fast, thanks to his ability to channel touchstones of the political and cultural zeitgeist (Donald Trump’s disastrous Chicago rally, Prince’s death, Kanye West’s ill-fated Saint Pablo tour) into meme-worthy designs (like his bestselling “Fuck Donald” tee) while those story lines are still burning up social media. “I really feel like I’m the CNN of clothing in America,” he says. —Miles Raymer

Sandoval first attracted attention at the gluten-free restaurant Senza, and even with one hand tied behind his back, he managed to produce dishes exquisite enough to earn it a Michelin star. At Oriole, with both hands free (you can watch them at work through windows in the dining room), Sandoval has created a cuisine that’s technically dazzling but also warm and unpretentious. “I want everyone to be able to understand my food,” he says. “I want people to trust me.”

Sandoval may well be the city’s next three-Michelin-starred chef. Book a table now before the star chasers start flying in. —Carrie Schedler

She didn’t have to wait long for a chance to put words into action: This spring, when the mayor introduced an ordinance to provide municipal IDs to undocumented immigrants, the formerly incarcerated, and the homeless, he tasked Valencia with implementing it. The country’s new political climate has only deepened Valencia’s resolve to use her office as an engine of change on hot-button issues. “I think for a lot of women, the election really hit them—what do I do, how do I speak up, how do I impact and resist what’s happening nationally?”

By all appearances, Valencia, a native of southern Illinois and the first in her family to graduate college, has the kind of full-throated support Rahm could only wish for—she got two standing ovations from City Council members during her swearing-in ceremony, glowing coverage in the Tribune, and a headline in the Sun-Times that read “A Star Is Born.” Senator Dick Durbin, whose 2014 reelection campaign Valencia managed, had similarly unequivocal praise: “I entrusted my political future to her. When she tells people things have to be done, they rally around her.” Suddenly the title “clerk” has fresh cachet. —Esther Kang

Promoted from within following a seven-month search, the 38-year-old wasn’t the safest choice for the legendary ad shop. But after some of his boldest gambits—such as Allstate’s long-running Mayhem character and the high-concept stunt of launching an Airbnb-rentable version of Van Gogh’s The Bedroom for the Art Institute of Chicago—proved immensely successful, Nolan edged to the front of the pack. “The thing that drove the popularity of the Van Gogh room is everybody’s love of selfies,” he says. “Who doesn’t want a picture of himself in that room?”

Though he’s shown a knack for tapping into the power of crowd-sharing—his work often catches fire on social media—the suburban-dwelling father of four is also a child of the ’80s who appreciates how classic campaigns like Wendy’s “Where’s the Beef?” seeped into the public consciousness. That’s what makes Nolan unique: his ability to create memorable, enduring advertising within today’s disposable, ADD culture.

“Ideas have a shorter shelf life than ever before,” he says. “You need to own your moment.” And now that Burnett, which lost longtime client McDonald’s in the United States last year, has recently scored a slew of new accounts, including Jim Beam and Special K, Nolan seems poised to own his. —Rod O’Connor

When St. Pierre, 57, started at the district in 2011, it took an average of 90 days to resolve a service call. Now it takes 45—and with 150 fewer workers. In 2010, the district’s financial reserves were being drained fast. Now its emergency fund has been replenished, and the district has been able to invest in giant new reservoirs and pioneering water treatment technologies. It has also lowered its carbon emissions and will, by 2023, be one of the first energy-neutral water reclamation systems in the world.

What’s more, the district is now capturing—and selling—large quantities of methane for use in low-emission trucks and buses. And in 2016, at the Stickney Water Reclamation Plant in Cicero, St. Pierre oversaw the opening of a massive new facility for recovering phosphorous—a pollutant that is also a crucial component of fertilizer—from wastewater. The sale of the chemical will eventually bring in around $4 million a year. Want more good news? Thanks to St. Pierre’s stewardship, the district’s once-sick pension system should be 100 percent funded by 2027. “Change can happen dynamically with very little chaos,” says St. Pierre, “so long as you lay out a vision and a plan.” Take that, Springfield! —Ted C. Fishman

What’s next for Carruthers? “A lot of my focus has been on moving out of the way,” she says, emphasizing that she wants to usher in a new crop of leaders. Her latest undertaking is a book she calls “a practical guide on how to organize.” The description is probably a bit of an understatement. If Carruthers’s work up to now is any indication, her book will be hands-on, in-your-face, and indispensable. —Darryl Holliday

His eclectic sound blends everything from funk to new wave, and he has begun working with artists outside of Chicago, cracking iTunes’ Top 50 earlier this year with pop newcomer Johnny Balik. “There are a lot of assumptions that come with being a black musician from the South Side—like, ‘Oh, you play R&B;, right? You play trap, right?’ ” says Cottontale. “Hearing that for so many years just made me want to try every type of music outside of that.”

Despite the newfound attention, Cottontale still spends way more time in the studio than in the limelight. “Some people play video games. Some people watch TV. My friends and I, we come together and make music.” —Matt Pollock

Today the 109-person-strong group knocks on doors, holds meetings, calls lawmakers, and undertakes other grassroots initiatives to advance Ramirez-Rosa’s progressive agenda, which emphasizes, among other things, immigrant rights, antigentrification measures, and term limits (he intends to step down after a second term, if voters give him one). Many see in Ramirez-Rosa the future face of civic-minded governance. “I think he has the potential to one day be the mayor, a U.S. senator, a governor even,” says former mayoral contender Jesús “Chuy” Garcia.

For now, Ramirez-Rosa has plenty to do at the local level. “Marginalized communities are told that they don’t have the ability to govern themselves, that they need some rich white man,” he says. “I don’t believe that at all. I believe in small-d democracy—participatory democracy.” On that count, he is walking the walk. —Esther Kang