I have lived in Montgomery County for almost 35 years, and been a grassroots activist in our community for over 20 years. We raised our children here and they went to MCPS schools from kindergarten through high school. I have a long record as a community activist, always working to improve our county and make government more responsive. I was president of my neighborhood civic association, successfully working to implement traffic calming, lower speed limits, push for ADA compliance at street intersections, and install bicycle lanes. I have worked for years on government transparency issues like compliance with Maryland’s Open Meetings Act. I’m past president of the Montgomery County Civic Federation, and was honored to receive its Star Cup for outstanding public service to Montgomery County. I am a member of the Parents’ Coalition of Montgomery County, working on MCPS issues, and am on the senior leadership team of the Montgomery County Jewish Parents Coalition, fighting rising antisemitism. In my professional career I was an archaeologist/historic preservation specialist and environmental protection specialist managing historic preservation projects and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) environmental assessments, working as a consultant in the private sector. My professional career and my decades-long successful experience as a community advocate on schools, traffic, and government transparency make me the best choice to represent District 4.

Policy Objectives

First, Montgomery County is facing severe budget issues. Rather than continue to solve budget issues by raising taxes, I will work to shift our focus to attracting high-target corporations that provide well-paid jobs and create a larger tax base. Growing revenue by increasing property tax rates and fees on residents will just keep us in the current downward budget spiral. I oppose these increasingly burdensome taxes on a population already suffering from economic shocks.

Second, I will push for fiscal accountability, to include working to stop no-bid contracts, including at MCPS; looking for redundancy and measures of effectiveness within our government agencies and the non-profits we fund; and reform the autocratic practices of the planning department. 

Third, affordability in housing and daily living. To help bring down these costs I will promote free school lunches and work to provide free weekend meals for kids, no-questions-asked, available at libraries. I will not raise taxes, including property and recordation taxes or fees; will reject new fees, and will push to lower taxes and eliminate some fees.

Fourth, I will promote true government transparency and responsiveness and work to reform the council so it addresses these issues, beginning with its overly secretive practices. I will make my work calendar and visitor log public and I encourage, as I have already, my council colleagues to do the same. I will push our Planning Department to make their plans public from the very beginning of the process, and to publish their visitor log online so residents can see with whom planning department staff are meeting. This latter measure will help alleviate the very real issue of residents not finding out about a plan or rezoning affecting them until it is too late to respond and do anything about it.

Education Background

• BA - University of Michigan, Anthropology major

• PhD - University of New York at Binghamton, Anthropology