I’m a parent, volunteer, nonprofit executive, and a bridge-builder in our diverse community. I’m running for re-election to continue getting things done for our kids and our community on the Malden City Council!

We are at a critical moment for Malden – rising costs of housing and energy, impacts from climate change. As a City Councillor, I’ve been a bridge builder across our diverse community. In my first term, I’ve been focused on climate action and environmental sustainability, investing in roads, sidewalks and removing lead pipes, and scaling up language access and translation. I’m running for re-election and I ask for your vote on November 7, 2023, because we’re just getting started!

What I’ve accomplished in my first term

As a City Councillor, I’ve brought a fresh perspective to try new approaches on long-standing issues. I’ve helped get grants to open up new capacity. And I’m always clear about my values of equity, opportunity, justice, care and transparency, values that I know we share as Maldonians, as the foundation for our future. I’ve been a bridge builder – building bridges across our diverse community, and bridges of opportunity from where we are today to a sustainable, thriving future. I build bridges because it’s how we get things done in Malden. 

I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish in just the past year and a half, working together with community groups, city staff, and my fellow Councillors. As chair of the Energy Efficiency and Sustainability Commission, I’ve led the charge to start a new city-wide climate action plan, preparing our community from rising temperatures and worsening storms, especially for our most vulnerable neighbors, and doing our part to protect the planet. We’ve worked towards the Malden Community Electricity program, offering more renewable energy and stable electric rates. We’ve invested millions more in our roads and sidewalks and removing toxic lead pipes, with a more strategic city-wide approach. We’ve made Malden more inclusive by scaling up language access and translation, and creating a new Police/Community Advisory Council. 

If re-elected, I’ll continue to focus on completing our climate action plan and the Malden Community Electricity program, supporting our Racial Equity Commission where I am the city council liaison, and working to create more affordable, attainable housing. There’s much work to do to ensure Malden’s future will be a truly inclusive, imaginative and dynamic community.

Committed to the community

Sarah and I are raising our family in Malden because we love the people and the values of this community. We moved to the area just before our oldest was born in 2015, and immediately found ourselves drawn to the parks, the local businesses we love, and the great mix of people that made our multiracial family feel immediately at home. We are active members and volunteers of First Parish church. Both our kids started out at the wonderful My Little Best Friends daycare, and are both now in Malden Public Schools at the Forestdale K-8 school. Sarah is a leader who helped found Malden PorchFest and worked with Malden Neighbors Helping Neighbors. We want to give back with everything we can to help Malden continue to be a great place to raise a family.

Growing up with a hunger for justice

My family has deep roots in Malden, going back to our community’s founding. I grew up in the Midwest, in Columbus, Ohio. While we didn’t have a lot of money, my parents always made sure we had a roof over our heads. They taught me how important it was to be engaged in my community with whatever you could give. We lived in the city, I went to public schools, and the inequality and racism all around me was obvious to me at an early age. Growing up, I wanted to learn what it takes to change laws, systems and policies. In college, I majored in economics and worked on political campaigns over the summers. 

Learning the system – working in government and public policy 

After graduating, I worked as a legislative aide in the Ohio House of Representatives. I later joined the staff of the Speaker of the House, and I helped pass a major education reform package. Moving over to the Ohio Department of Education, I worked as a budget and policy analyst on school funding and equity issues. It was an incredible experience that taught me how to design policy, how to talk with stakeholder groups across the spectrum, and how to pay attention to the details in implementation because they can have a huge impact.

Leading change – experienced manager and executive

We moved to the Boston area a dozen years ago and I started work at the Unitarian Universalist Association. The UUA is a mid-size religious nonprofit that is the headquarters for over 1,000 liberal Unitarian Universalist congregations (including our congregation here in Malden). My faith teaches me that every person has worth and dignity, that we are all connected, and that we must work for justice and equity. It is a privilege every day to give back to my faith community because it has given me so much strength and resilience. While working at the UUA, I went to graduate school part-time and got my Masters in Organizational Leadership from Wheelock College. After nearly twelve years at the UUA, I am now the Executive Vice President overseeing day-to-day operations for our 200+ staff and $31 million operating budget.

In my time as Executive VP, we have navigated COVID safety and public health recommendations for our staff and our congregations; dramatically increased our staff diversity; implemented new policies for justice, equity, diversity and inclusion; and reorganized our staff groups and leadership structure. We have shifted millions of dollars to higher-impact work while maintaining a flat budget; completed two fundraising campaigns; helped our congregations navigate the pandemic with safe and ethical leadership; and revamped our justice and advocacy work, leading to a national, nonpartisan voter outreach campaign in 2020 and 2022 that contacted over 2 million voters each time. 

Volunteer and activist

Giving your time and talent as a volunteer is an essential way of feeding the roots of your community. In Malden, in addition to being involved at First Parish, I volunteer at the Malden Warming Center and with Merry Malden. For the last decade, I’ve also volunteered with New Leaders Council-Boston, our local chapter of the NLC program which trains and connects the young professionals who champion equity and fuel progress. I was a 2012 NLC fellow, and then served on my local chapter board and helped start the NLC National Diversity Committee. 

I had been volunteering on campaigns and going to rallies since high school. As a Black/multiracial person, I care deeply about racial justice. In the past decade, I’ve supported the Black Lives Matter movement, including helping to get a BLM banner installed at our church in Malden. In the summer of 2020 after the murder of George Floyd, I helped start a community working group called Malden Police Alternatives and Accountability. MPAA also worked with other community groups to launch a Malden People’s Budget, which asked people who lived and worked in Malden how they thought the city should invest its resources. I joined the Malden Mayor’s Advisory Group on the Obama Pledge, whose 2022 final report reviewed and made recommendations on the Malden Police Department’s Use of Force policy. In Malden, we’ve built on the important racial justice work that Malden CORE, Greater Malden Asian American Community Coalition, Mystic Valley NAACP and others had been doing for years: building solidarity for policy change and racial justice. 

Ready to lead

When I ran as a first-time candidate in 2021, I brought a fresh perspective to Malden’s challenges coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since getting elected, I have worked hard from Day 1 for a progressive future of our city. I believe in the power of collaborative, bridge-building leadership. My family and I are invested in Malden. We’ve volunteered for years shoulder to shoulder with our neighbors to give back. I bring an understanding of how government and public policy works, how to lead a large organization, how to build partnerships for success, and how to think big about what our community needs to thrive. I’m thrilled to be asking for your vote this fall for my reelection, and I’ll see you out on the campaign trail!

Updated May 2023