PLATFORM

"As a native of the White River Valley, I have been civically active in my town since high school. Now I want to work for the whole district. We need to economically and socially revitalize our communities, find equitable ways to fund our schools, create community and regional resilience, support and protect our natural environment, and find ways to retain and attract young families. As a proven leader and innovator in community revitalization, I have the skills and experience to find creative solutions and get things done."

LIST OF ISSUES

Economic Revitalization

My top priority is empowering the economic, cultural, and social revitalization of our small towns so that our economy works for all Vermonters, not just the wealthy few. My experience with the Bethel Revitalization Initiative has taught me that there are many ways in which our towns can be renewed through both individual and regional efforts. We found ways to reunite our towns, find common visions, and effectively implement them to make our town begin to grow and prosper again. I also learned that our state agencies can both help and hinder those efforts. As your representative, I will work to bring resources to our communities and to remove the barriers that bureaucracies erect that stymie creative solutions. I will bring my leadership and creative problem-solving skills to creating more economic development to our towns and our district.

Attracting/ Retaining Young Families

We need to employ creative solutions to the shrinking of our communities and the flight of our youth. We do this by addressing such issues as the cost of health insurance, lack of affordable housing, addressing the opiate addiction and mental health problems, expanding access to affordable daycare and early childhood education, workforce development and business incentives, along with creating vibrant social, cultural, and economic communities that people want to move to and our children want to stay in. As your representative, I will work toward making these happen.

Equity, Inclusion and Diversity

We need a Vermont that works for all of us, which is why I support the Black Lives Matter movement. A Vermont that works for all is one of equity and inclusion, where every resident can feel safe and supported; a Vermont whose systems of government inspire trust, promote justice, and offer the same opportunities for everyone to succeed. To reach that goal, it is critical that we confront and eliminate implicit systemic bias against Black, Indigenous, and other people of color. We need to:

do a deep assessment and reorganization of our systems and institutions at all levels of state and local government.
end police brutality and militarization and reshape our criminal justice system to be one of rehabilitation and community return.
more correctly assign social work, mental health intervention and support, mediation, and medical response to trained professionals in those fields and not to police so that the police can focus on the job we’ve hired them to do — protect the public’s safety.
teach diversity in our schools and promote inclusion in our communities.

As your representative, I will work to find creative solutions toward ending systemic bias so that our BIPOC neighbors have a Vermont that works for — not against — them.

Equitable School Funding

We need to address the issue of school funding to promote more equitable, fair, and sustainable solutions. We do this by changing the way we fund our schools, and rethinking our special education system. Having raised a daughter who attended a local school, and as a property owner, I understand the complexity of balancing the needs for school funding with people’s ability to provide that support. While this is a big, complicated issue, as your state representative I will work toward finding creative ways to improve our schools without increasing the tax burden on those already challenged.

Community Resilience

Every couple years we get hit with another “100-year event” that takes a toll on our infrastructures, businesses, residents, and taxes. As your representative, I will work to find proactive ways that our communities can individually and collectively build community resilience so that our communities are not devastated by increasingly common severe weather events and other tragedies such as fire.

Environment

It is important that we support the state's efforts to promote a healthy environment, generate energy locally, and reduce its own impact on climate change. This is good for tourism, attracting young families, promoting clean jobs, and building community resilience. As your representative, I will work toward finding intelligent, creative ways to reduce our impact and promote a healthy environment while still empowering the economic revitalization of our communities.