Welcome.
I am a tax attorney and longtime (20 years) Westwood resident. I am running for Select Board to effect positive change in our community.
Until recently, I preferred to remain an outside observer of town politics. But I have come to believe that public participation is essential if we want an effective government whose decisions and policies serve our collective best interests.
Residents can be forgiven for checking out of a system which has limited our access to important information, excluded us from decision making processes, and failed to respond to our concerns.
But something has to change.
We need to know what’s happening, and we need to know that our voices matter. We must know that our time, energy, and ideas are important and that our contributions will not be ignored.
I have the skills and temperament to be an effective Select Board member and to serve with purpose and integrity.
I will work to bring our community together and build a Westwood which is better for all of us.
Most importantly, I will listen.
I am a lifelong Massachusetts resident. I grew up on the South Coast, in Dartmouth, and earned my undergraduate degree at Duke University before returning home to earn my JD at Boston College.
I am a member in good standing of the Massachusetts bar, and spent a decade in private practice as a tax lawyer. This required a high level of attention to detail, as well as the ability to work well with various stakeholders to successfully meet objectives on time and within budget. I developed strong interpersonal, organizational, and negotiation skills and a practical ability to balance competing interests, solve problems, and get things done.
I stepped away from the legal profession to raise 3 children in Westwood. During this time, I have engaged in meaningful work in service to our community and beyond, including in leadership volunteer positions in the Martha Jones, Deerfield and Thurston schools.
At Martha Jones, I worked to support the “Original Works” program, which used student-created, curriculum-based artwork to produce keepsakes which raised over $1000 per year for the PTO. The teachers, students, and families loved it.
When our family moved, I introduced this program to the Deerfield School community, where it was equally popular and successful.
Also at Deerfield, I worked closely with other volunteers to run a very profitable after-school enrichment program known as “mini courses.” For a reasonable fee, we offered a variety of high quality, on-site, afterschool enrichment activities for students, including sports and games, knitting, playing chess, debating, and cooking. This labor-intensive group effort raised thousands of dollars for the Deerfield PTO, supported working parents, and provided our kids with many happy afternoons together.
I worked closely with another parent, a Master Gardener, to make the Deerfield school garden a reality.
I worked with other parent volunteers to plan, scrap, and plan again a memorable community celebration to celebrate the 5th graders who were “moving up” to middle school during the COVID shutdown, including creating a slideshow which highlighted each student individually.
At Thurston, I was co-president of the PTO during Principal Mike Redmon’s first year. My most lasting contribution in that role was working with the School Committee to successfully add, on a permanent basis, a 3rd guidance counselor. Previously, there had been only 2 guidance counselors for the entire Middle School, which I found grossly inadequate.
I’ve delivered hundreds of boxes of Girl Scout cookies. Many Westwood parents trusted me to take their daughters tent camping over a very wet and windy weekend, and to Nantucket for a much more comfortable weekend of bicycles and campfires.
At St. John’s Episcopal Church, I was twice honored to be chosen to serve on our Rector Search Committee. I have supported this community many ways over the last 20 years, including in community-building and fundraising roles. I am currently serving a second term on the Vestry (Board of Directors).
I am an optimist by nature and am passionate about bringing people together and building community. I enjoy meeting people because I am curious about other peoples’ life experiences and points of view.
For fun I like to take our dogs for long walks in the woods, go biking or kayaking, play pickleball, swim in the ocean, read a good book, travel, and explore local historic sites.
I am a big fan of public transportation, libraries, art museums, field hockey, and college basketball.
I have great faith in the power of people working together to bring about positive change and I am excited about what we can accomplish in our community. I look forward to spending the upcoming weeks meeting with, and listening to, as many residents as possible and learning what you care about. I welcome the opportunity to let you get to know me as well.
My Values.
We have a lot of work to do, and it starts with rebuilding public trust in our elected officials.
I believe that public officials have an obligation to proactively share important information with us. We must be able to trust that if an important issue requires our attention, our public officials will publicly raise it.
I believe that public officials should reach decisions in open, in person meetings, subject to extremely limited exceptions. Public disclosure, scrutiny, and discussion should be the rule, not the exception.
I believe that public officials should cooperatively engage with residents, other town boards and committees, local businesses, philanthropists, and nonprofits. These stakeholders are important allies and partners, not adversaries, and they should be included at every stage of decision making processes.
Finally, I believe that public officials must do the painstaking work of building consensus among these stakeholders, including those holding minority or dissenting opinions, in order to leverage expertise, balance competing interests, find common ground, and arrive at an end result which serves our collective best interests. This process is essential.
If you agree, I ask that you please support my candidacy and plan to vote on or before April 28.
For more information, please visit the Listen, Prioritize, Deliver, and News & Updates pages.