Precinct: 2
Tell us a little about yourself. You can include your personal background, family, outside interests that are important to who you are as a person and a candidate.
My wife and I moved to Lexington in 2011. I am a registered professional engineer with many passions. My love for client service and municipal resiliency led me to found a civil engineering consulting firm in 2012. OSD Engineering Consultant’s office is in Lexington Center.
My love for history led me to the Board of the Lexington Historical Society to create the Black History Project of Lexington with the Association of Black Citizens of Lexington (ABCL) and to champion legislation that designates July 8 as Massachusetts Emancipation Day, also known as Quock Walker Day.
My father’s 30 year-military career led to my five years on active duty. His love for books and libraries led to my love for both.
My mother’s belief that every child can learn to be a life-long learner (she was an outstanding teacher) informs how I teach adults for work and children as a volunteer.
My wife’s professional collaborations challenge me to be a more creative problem-solver, and my friendships with professional storytellers and clergy inform how I approach civic engagement and public education.
How has your past experience — whether in your professional life, elected office, or as a community leader — prepared you for a role in Town Meeting?
Since 2013, I have had the opportunity to engage in many constructive ways:
From 2013 – 2015, I served on the Sidewalk Committee with fellow citizens who cared about pedestrian safety. I was impressed by how well the committee worked with our neighbors, the Town Engineer and other DPW staff.
From 2014 – 2019, I served on the Lexington Human Rights Committee. While LHRC Chair (2015 – 2019), one of my goals was to develop, champion and implement anti-bias and racial justice training and programming. The Lexington Interfaith Clergy Association and LHRC brought Training Active Bystanders to Lexington in 2017.
In 2017, I co-founded ABCL. During my time as ABCL President (2017 to 2021) and Historian (2022 to Present), ABCL has proposed and supported town meeting articles. One proposed article was to create, fund, advertise and fill the position of Diversity Officer. Lexington now has a Chief Equity Officer.
In 2022, I was appointed to the Appropriation Committee. The Appropriation Committee is required to create a report that includes our analysis and recommendations regarding all anticipated appropriation of funds and other financial matters that may come before Town Meeting.
What is the most important issue in this election to you personally, and what ideas do you have about how to address this issue?
I want Lexington to become a more sustainable community. The Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC) defines a sustainable community as one that manages its human, natural, and financial capital to meet current needs while ensuring that adequate resources are available for future generations.
I want all individuals to have an equal opportunity to participate in and influence decisions that affect their lives. I want those civically engaged individuals not to compromise the sustainability of other communities within Lexington (e.g., recent graduates, fixed-income, low-income, and differently-abled) and outside Lexington.
The ISC has concluded that climate change, income inequality, and social injustice are the biggest threats to building strong, sustainable communities. As Lexington becomes more adaptable to climate change, I want Lexington to also become more adaptable to other changing circumstances and conditions.
Our town meeting articles have fiscal implications that need to be highlighted before they are passed. One fiscal implication is the addition of town staff needed to enforce or implement the proposed article. And another is the additional cost to vendors that inevitably will be passed on to Lexington residents.
I love the work that our retired volunteers have done and continue to do for our town. One day I hope to join their ranks. In the meantime, through Town Meeting, I want to work with elected officials, town staff and Town Meeting members to staunch the loss of this valuable human resource because they can no longer afford to live in Lexington.
I also love the energy that new residents bring to our town. Through Town Meeting, I want to work with elected officials, town staff and Town Meeting members to make Lexington more attractive to renters and homebuyers from a greater variety of income brackets.
Doing those two things will make Lexington a more sustainable community.
In 2018, I reached out to members of the Church of Our Redeemer and First Parish to discuss my initiative to start a White People Dismantling White Privilege and Institutional Racism program in Lexington. The initial meetings focused on vision, learned experiences, and lived experiences. It took time and compromise to build a skeleton on which the two congregations could build. The outcome was the Dismantling Racism in Our Town course, which encourages participants to be change agents in their community.
I am proud of the congregational leaders who have grown this program to be bigger than themselves and more suitable to the audience than my initial vision.
Many of us want to be positive change agents in our community. It is a difficult and necessary challenge to work with new people and change your valued plans so that you can find a way to make your goals a reality.
I continue to be pleasantly surprised and impressed by the capacity for good exhibited by those who live and work in Lexington.
I volunteer to create opportunities for goodness.
And I ask for your vote for Town Meeting so that I can build upon the foundation of goodness that ABCL banner honorees Bill Ridgley and Leona Martin built when they successfully ran for Town Meeting in the late 20th century.