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About
As Chair of the Selectboard, I asked voters to increase the Fire Chief's pay from $3/hour to $13/hour, as part of the proposed FY2011 Budget at Essex Town Annual Meeting 2010. They did. Town Meeting Television Archives
Making a Difference
By Being Different
American society is out-of-balance.
We need people with new ideas to step up and run for office, to think creatively about recurring problems, and to find new ways to address them.
Elected officials must remember their job is to speak for and serve their constituents, not their cronies.
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In 2005 I applied to join a local government task force on merger. Once appointed, I faced tremendous pressure to "go along to get along." I resisted, and I've been resisting such pressure to conform ever since. The way to bring common sense and an independent voice into the halls of power is to prioritize constituents' needs.
I served for 12 years ― never missing a meeting ― as a non-partisan, elected member of the Essex Town Selectboard. I've served on numerous other committees at Town Hall, including the Essex Energy Committee for 15 years. I currently chair the Economic Development Commission.
I also served as the Essex representative to the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission for four years. I traveled to Texas on its behalf to speak about a federal HUD (US Dept. of Housing & Urban Development) grant we received and used to jump-start our ECOS Regional Plan.
I spoke at the Rio South Texas Regional Planning Consortium Peer Exchange at South Padre Island, Texas about Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission's ECOS Plan in September of 2012.
I regularly attend more than 100 meetings per year in order to hear about and better address community concerns.
I was the sole Selectboard attendee at Cemetery Commission meetings, the Essex Players' annual meetings, and the Senior Center's merger meeting, not because it was my duty but to broaden my understanding of community needs.
Before and after my Selectboard service, I actively pushed for improvements to local government. After years of speaking up, I once sang to my Selectboard a cautionary tale about rushing a merger plan.
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I grew up in a small industrial town along the Delaware River, in a rural part of New Jersey.
My parents were active in the community ― my Dad as a pastor, my Mom as a Girl Scout Leader and School Board member ― setting an example for their children.
Church, scouting, and school activities rounded out my early school years. I loved watching sports on TV and played basketball in middle school. Each summer, my sister and I hung out at the library, the municipal park and playground, and public tennis courts, where free lessons were offered. I'm grateful for the walkable, affordable options that town rec and library departments provided.
I continued to play tennis in high school, through which I learned tenacity and good sportsmanship. I didn't have the benefit of paid lessons or indoor courts but played outdoors with friends, weather permitting. As a junior and senior, I was named an East Penn League All Star, and captained the first girls team at my high school to finish atop that league.
I earned a college degree in the field of Industrial & Labor Relations, gaining an appreciation for the benefits that labor unions have brought to the workforce. I learned that fair outcomes can only be achieved by listening to and respecting all sides, and negotiating in good faith.
I played a semester of rugby, several intramural sports, and finished with a berth in a national collegiate table tennis tournament in Colorado Springs just before graduation.
After working in corporate Human Resources, Tech Support, and Communications for several firms, I started a series of home-based businesses.
I founded the Essex ReTorter in July 2020, to provide more meeting coverage and to shed light on issues that other media missed, misconstrued, or merely bypassed. I put that publication on hold two years later in order to focus on state government.
Before launching my first senate campaign in 2022, I spent many years helping non-profit and educational institutions, including:
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Meals on Wheels, Weekly Delivery
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EJUM Food Shelf, Monthly Sorter
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Transition Town Jericho, Board Member
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Green Mountain Montessori School, Chair, Board of Directors
Sorting donations to the EJUM Food Shelf
As the mother of two grown children, I empathize with parenting challenges: how to make ends meet, how to get everyone where they need to be, and how to cope without relatives living nearby. My kids attended schools in Essex, including the two years they asked me to homeschool them.