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 family and I moved to Lexington in 1970. We had a love for Lexington with its charming character and history. We found a modestly priced house with a large yard on a historical street laid out in the 1600’s. I worked in the high tech field in computer hardware and software design and development. After 20 years, I took a career path in academia and worked at Tufts University, Boston University, and Northeastern University as an administrator implementing and managing Computer Administrative Student Information and Library systems. More recently, I taught Information Technology courses at community colleges. I have a passion for the outdoors and physical activity, and I am an avid cyclist. I also love to travel to cold climates. I am a member of Lexington Field and Garden Club, board member of League of Women Voters and President of South Lexington Civic Association representing the residents of precinct 3 and 9.
Why are you running for Town Meeting?
Since 2011, I have been a Town Meeting Member representing residents in Precinct 9 and I assure them that they have a voice through me. Through my involvement in Town Meeting and my work with town staff on several community initiatives I have worked to improve the lives of residents. As the former chair of the Town Meeting Members Association working with board members from all nine town precincts, I helped establish the factual basis necessary for intelligent decision making by Town Meeting Members and I facilitated communication about the Town Meeting process to the voting public. As President of South Lexington Civic Association (SLCA) my role is to represent the residents of South Lexington precincts 3 and 9 through the SLCA Board in matters that relate to South Lexington such as housing, transportation, traffic, infrastructure safety and economic development.
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 my past professional life as a team leader and manager of large customer computer hardware software projects I worked closely with teammates and clients to listen to their respective needs for a particular product. This brought out not only my technical skills, but most importantly my listening and team building skills. My private and public sector skills are highly transferable to local government needs such as management, finance, communication, and operations. My community leadership role has helped guide, organize and empower others to improve their shared area by identifying needs, fostering collaboration and acting as a liaison. These skill sets help me in my role as a Town Meeting Member in precinct 9.
As an active listener, I try to find out what the other person’s goals are. From that point, I build common ground, set clear goals, and respect the other person’s goals. I separate the person from the politics, use constructive criticism, remain calm, and manage my emotions.
At Massachusetts Bay Community College, I was involved with administrators and faculty working together on a successful student technical lab project where students brought their STEM projects to campus for a student lab exhibition. My challenge was to act as a facilitator to organize the STEM project presentations. Because this involved competitive projects in each discipline, I established a calendar for each discipline and each event presentation. This involved administrators and faculty agreeing on what discipline was presented and when. As facilitator, I worked through many group meetings and many opinions. Ultimately, the group established a group leader position to meet with each discipline and to determine what and how they wanted to present and bring the plan back for approval. This took many meetings, continued conversations, collaboration among participants and negotiations to come to a group decision on a final plan.
What is the most important issue in this election to you personally, and what ideas do you have about how to address this issue?
The town budget and town transportation infrastructure needs are two important issues. The ongoing implementation of the MBTA Communities Act within these constraints amplify their importance. I have some concerns about the ongoing impact to the town of decreased federal government funding. There is a lack of clarity from the federal government as to what and how those impacts will affect Massachusetts as a whole and what the impact will be for Lexington. Funding decreases for grants and research, tariffs, and health insurance are just a few of the many impacts that will drive up the town budget. How all of these impacts affect the school budget is an issue. The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation has an overview to help quantify impacts on Massachusetts. Some of those impacts: grants to school districts, special education support, meal support for eligible students, public safety and infrastructure.
The MBTA Communities Act will impact the town transportation infrastructure. All modes of safety need improvement. Speed limit signage is necessary to protect pedestrian and cycling travel. Crosswalks are needed in school zones and heavily traveled areas. Bike lanes, sharrows and markings are needed on all major streets in town. Bus capacity needs to be enhanced. One of the key components of the act is capacity planning. The required unit capacity is based on a formula calculating potential development which helps towns plan for necessary infrastructure upgrades. The town needs an infrastructure plan prior to any further development.