Dr. David Gill grew up in Niles, IL. His father died at age 37, so David went to work washing dishes and busing tables in a restaurant at age 13. He worked his way through both college and medical school in Champaign-Urbana, stocking shelves in a department store and mopping the floors of a laundromat. He completed residency training in Family Practice in Iowa, and after several years as a family physician, he switched over to full-time practice in Emergency Medicine in 1996. He is Board-certified in both Family Practice and Emergency Medicine.
Dr. Gill is a 20-year member of the Physicians for a National Health Program, an organization of 20,000 doctors which advocates for an Improved Medicare for All program. He has done volunteer work with Big Brothers/Big Sisters, The Salvation Army, and Peace Meals. He is a longtime member of Physicians for Reproductive Health.
David ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for a seat in Congress in Illinois' old 15th District in 2004, 2006, and 2010. As a populist committed to the well-being of his fellow men and women, he always ran better than expected in that heavily Republican district. After defeating the Democratic establishment in the 2012 primary, despite being outspent 5-to-1, David barely lost the general election in the second-closest of the country's 435 House elections that year.
Dr. Gill refuses all funding from corporations and Wall Street banks.
David's first wife passed away several years ago, from colon cancer. He and his second wife, Elaine, reside in Bloomington; they have six children, two dogs rescued from animal control, and two cats.