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 spouse and I have two grown children. We have lived in Lexington since 1994 because we value preserving open space, supporting education, sound fiscal management, and purposefully developing community and local businesses.
Our kids attended Lexington Public Schools from kindergarten through 12th grade, and where I volunteered, and served on school councils. I am a long-term member of the League of Women Voters, a founding member of LexSeeHer, and we have belonged to Temple Isaiah for over 20 years. I join community fun like performing with the Lexington 300th Acting Troupe (I played Maria Hastings Cary!), exhibiting my photographs at Open Studios and the library, and dancing with intercultural dance troupe Lexington Beats.
I love being outdoors, photographing everyday beauty, and writing science- and craft-based fiction. I have survived serious illnesses, and value every day. I understand the importance of public health approaches and research; access to quality care; and individual healthcare choice.
I take seriously that we live in concentric circles of social interaction, responsibility and support—family (of origin/choice), friends, neighbors, work, town, state, country, planet. My personal choices have effects that are not externalities.
Why are you running for Town Meeting?
I am running for Town Meeting because I contribute valuable historical and process knowledge, as well as a calm temperament, that can help Town Meeting function as we face some of the most significant challenges since I joined Town Meeting in 2004.
I am almost always impressed with the amount of time, effort and careful thought that goes into the information we are provided by committees and staff; the engagement of residents; and the level and tenor of civil debate. Even when I am facing a tough or confusing decision, I know I will hear cogent arguments from multiple perspectives, and that people will listen when I speak.
I believe in the Town Meeting structure. While much of the work to make the Town run is done by dedicated paid staff and volunteer board, commission, and committee members, that work is done knowing that Town Meeting Members will scrutinize budgets and bylaws, asking practical and meaningful questions. I would be honored to continue to do that.
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?
I understand the Town from different perspectives because my involvement grew from being a person who just slept here, commuted to work in Boston, knew my neighbors and was vaguely aware of town goings-on; to becoming a Big Backyard volunteer, School Council member, Room Parent, Town Meeting Member, local business owner and more.
Among my most important activities:
• I co-chaired the Health Benefits Review Committee (2004–5); and was a member of the Busa Land Use Proposal Committee (2010–12), which resulted in LexFarm, and the FarmView housing.
• I was honored to initiate the role of Deputy Town Moderator in 2010–11, and to serve again in 2015.
• I am proud of unanimous passage by Town Meeting in 2020 of a citizen’s article developed by a team I led which asked the Town to consider racial and other equity impacts in all decisions and planning processes. While non-binding, the resolution has provided a prompt and a guide for ongoing work.
• In 2023, when Town Meeting debated the MBTA Communities Act, I joined others to propose an amendment to reduce the land areas involved.
Professionally, I am a Principal at DMA Health Strategies, a policy research, program planning and evaluation firm located on Meriam Street. We focus on strengthening mental health and substance use services. I have worked there since 2006, and in 2021, we became a co-operative; I am a Member-Owner. I have a background in both social work and technology transfer.
As a baseline, I do my best to respond individually to people who contact me. For those seeking advice or wanting to understand Town processes, I listen to their experience and goals, then try to give a rough outline of process or history that might be relevant, and provide links to resources or people who might help. When a building project in a neighboring town was affecting constituents, I joined them at that town’s planning board meetings to voice concerns; when parents sought to add modulars to a local school, I explained the ultimate goal would be to have the Town’s debt curve impact on tax payers be manageable, but then broke that down into more bite-sized steps.
On issues, I listen to what a person’s experience has been and their perceptions; and I listen for what information they have and what they might be missing. I also listen for the values they are hoping to meet. If we have different values, I acknowledge that–yet, usually there is some element where we share a value but different approaches on how to achieve it. After those pieces are filled in, if we have different conclusions based on the same information, and the same values, there are times I won’t be able to convince them of my view and they won’t convince me, but we usually leave with a better understanding of the other. Sometimes people will be angry, and there isn’t anything I can do except treat them with respect, share my reasoning, and vote what I think is best for the Town.
What is the most important issue in this election to you personally, and what ideas do you have about how to address this issue?
There are multiple issues that affect all of us personally in the Town, including me. In many cases, we simply face tough decisions, not even tough “choices.”
Fiscally, we face a major capital investment in a new high school building, a project which has been staved off for too long. I am in favor of the Bloom design, and the process which went into selecting it. We are fortunate to be in a position to get significant state assistance while addressing safety, health and overcrowding issues that are longstanding. I believe the arguments that Bloom provides the least expensive, fastest and least disruptive approach in a situation where the cost of any solution is high, construction will take multiple years, and disruption is unavoidable.
Environmentally, we face loss of our tree canopy on private property, and the impact of large developments under the MBTA Communities Act zoning, and likely the loss of federal support for stronger environmental measures. I agree the region needs more housing, and more affordable housing, and some of the things people who live here take for granted about Lexington were achieved by exclusionary zoning. That doesn’t mean I think everyone should live in a city and drive out to “the country” for nature. I think we need green spaces and some kind of visible plant life–trees, leaves, gardens, vegetable plots, plants, shade– available near all dwelling places, and visible from them. We need walkable spaces. We need planning and not just zoning.
Socially, we face challenges to values we have enshrined in our comprehensive plan to make Lexington a welcoming place for all. On the whole, I believe that on a micro-level, we can warmly welcome anyone who moves to our neighborhoods, even when on a macro level, we may disagree about issues related to structures—whether that is mansionization or multi-family housing.
I grew up in Watertown. I traveled internationally with academic parents. That experience shaped my view of the world—that there were always individual humans behind every “issue” or headline. I was lucky to grow up seeing people disagree strenuously without harming each other, and to think that was how it should be. I was lucky enough to be treated kindly by people who had very different life experiences from me, and to think that was how it should be. I also saw other realities of how people lived that were not how it should be, and how they survived with dignity and compassion and savvy and street smarts. I listen intently to people’s perceptions, because that is where engagement starts.
Just another fun fact: I have always loved animals and learning about animal behavior, and in my 20s spent an incredible month volunteering at an outdoor dolphin communication laboratory, where we worked with dolphins using tonal, gestural and visual communication. People communicate so many different ways, and I try to take in what they are telling me.
My educational background: A.B., Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges, 1986; Masters of Social Work, Boston University, 1989; M.A. in Social Policy, Brandeis University. Current Ph.D. Candidate at the Heller School of Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University.