About Dan

Dan Wozniczka was born and raised in Chicago’s Jefferson Park neighborhood. His parents, George and Lottie, were Polish immigrants, and Dan learned at an early age how hard many families have to work just to make ends meet. Both of his parents fled their homeland in search of better opportunities in America. Some of his father’s family perished while fighting for the Polish resistance movement during WW2, and his mother came to America after the brutal crackdown and martial law imposed by the Soviet Union after the rise of pro-democracy efforts by the Solidarity movement.

Growing up, Dan was afforded opportunities his parents never had, and he became committed to the idea of medicine and public service as a way to give back. He dreamed of becoming a doctor in order to serve his community, but saw early in his medical training how our healthcare system was built around profits rather than patients. For Dan, being a doctor needed to be more than waiting for patients to show up at the hospital in an ambulance, so he decided to pursue both his MBA and Masters of Public Health degrees during his hospital residency. His expertise in economics and public health have informed his fight for universal healthcare and will be instrumental in his work in Congress. Dan is neurodivergent, and credits his autism and cognitive synesthesia with allowing him to hyperfocus on his work and studies. 

As a resident, Dan was selected by the American College of Physicians to lobby Congress on issues concerning federal funding for residency training programs. After finishing his training, Dan commissioned into the U.S. Public Health Service, and was assigned to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) within their vaunted Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS). During his time at the CDC, Dan witnessed firsthand how partisan politics interferes with public health.

Dan has testified multiple times to the United States House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, and is a congressionally protected whistleblower for his efforts to raise awareness that the Trump administration was lying to the American public during the COVID pandemic. He saw the clear-cut scientific evidence that Donald Trump and Mike Pence were ignoring the science and manipulating public health decisions for political gain, rather than letting the scientists at the CDC do what they are trained to do: protect the American people. He attempted to warn Chicago about asymptomatic spread and the upcoming pandemic, until he was threatened with termination on March 13, 2020 for disobeying orders and refusing to follow Mike Pence’s communication crackdown.

After being threatened with termination for refusing to follow Mike Pence’s communication crackdown and alerting the American people that they were being lied to, Dan came back to his hometown of Chicago to continue his work to use medicine as a form of service to others.

Dan practices medicine at NorthShore Hospital and is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago, as well as a public health professor at Benedictine University. He would be the first openly autistic member of Congress.