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.
I have lived in Lexington for 25 years and raised a child here. I deeply value all that our beloved community has to offer! Professionally, I work in public health consulting. Beyond that, I am a lifelong civil rights and social justice activist who strives to make our world more inclusive and fair for all kinds of people. I have volunteered with many community, state, and national organizations over the years, and I currently chair LexPride and serve on the board of LexSeeHer. In all this work, I have worked intentionally to make connections across our many local interests to ensure that many perspectives are included.
Why are you running for Town Meeting?
I believe that Lexington is a wonderful community and I would like to contribute to its ongoing success and further improve our deliberations and decision-making by helping to bring in a broad array of perspectives. I believe that the more perspectives we consider, the better and more creative our solutions will be. I am honored to have served in Town Meeting for several years and will continue to be an inclusive voice for sound decision-making if reelected.
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?
In addition to having served in Town Meeting for several years already, I have also lived, worked, and volunteered in our community in many ways. In volunteering with various committees, and in working with LexPride and LexSeeHer, I have reached out to people representing many cultures, identities, and interests to ensure that we take into account many different perspectives. I’ve engaged with the schools, our local businesses, our local cultural groups, other community groups, and more. I take the role of Town Meeting Member seriously, ensuring that I “do my homework” to review as much documentation and listen to as many conversations as possible. I would be honored to continue this work.
As I indicated in my previous answers, I believe that listening deeply to many perspectives is the best way to ensure sound, creative deliberations and decision-making in Town Meeting. My goal is always to listen to understand other perspectives—not to listen just for the purpose of defending my own position or rebutting another view. I am constantly learning and growing as a result. I recognize that many issues that come before Town Meeting are complex, with many varying pros and cons. Rarely is an issue so straightforward that we can simply agree it is “all good” or “all bad”. Many residents agree or disagree on specific aspects of issues. Ultimately, I consider it my job to engage with that complexity–to integrate all perspectives in the context of our goals as a community–and make my decisions accordingly. I do not have to agree 100% with any given article or all the perspectives expressed. I just need to agree that, on balance, it is in the best interests of our community.
What is the most important issue in this election to you personally, and what ideas do you have about how to address this issue?
To be honest, I have been uncomfortable with the degree of personalization of issues in recent times. This sometimes takes the form of personal attacks, demonization of a project as a whole rather than specific aspects of it, and other types of incivility. I would like to continue to ask for and model respectful, inclusive engagement with diverse perspectives with the goal of listening with an open mind to learn and grow (not to rebut or insult someone else) to make the best decisions possible for our community. Sometimes our solutions will be imperfect, and sometimes we will be uncomfortable with the consequences of some aspects of the solutions. If and when that happens, we need to acknowledge that, while moving forward with the best solution we’re able to craft.