Many of you know me through my public comments.

I’ve been outspoken at City Council meetings about my support for transit improvements, including the Wake Transit Plan and the Bus Rapid Transit Corridors, better sidewalks and adding bike lanes to create the key connections needed for families to travel our city without a car. I’ve advocated for changes to our development code and zoning practices to allow people to build accessory dwelling units, run their home businesses legally via accessory commercial units, set-up farm stands to sell healthy local produce at community gardens, allow tiny homes and missing middle housing to be built throughout the city again, and many more small but important changes.

Why am I so outspoken?

Because I’ve lived in the District for 15 years and made it my home. I speak up from the perspectives I hold and have held, as a student, as a young professional, as a working mom, as a person who relies on public transportation, as a city employee, as a representative of small business clients trying to build their dreams. When issues impact my life, my work, or my neighbors lives, then I have consistently shown up to comment and provide a solutions-oriented perspective.

In many ways, I’ve grown up with our City.

As the daughter of a veteran, I moved around as a kid. When I landed in Raleigh, in District D, I found myself at home. I’ve experienced the many vibrant neighborhoods in our community, from my time on campus at NC State, to moving into an apartment on Gorman St and Avent Ferry. After I got married, I moved downtown on Morgan St, eventually buying a house near the State Farmer’s Market as we started our family.

Raleigh has a place for people at so many stages of life, it’s been a remarkable place to transition from student, to mother, to community advocate. I went to high school at the North Carolina School for Science and Math, and graduated from NC State with degrees in civil engineering and architecture. My love for Raleigh grew at NC State, and I was inspired to set down roots and be part of the creative and innovative energy happening in Raleigh. I remember Thomas Crowder visiting our class to discuss the importance of SouthWest Raleigh as the creative heart of Raleigh, a creative district full of caring, creative people. He and other local architects inspired me to become involved in the community.

Community involvement is core to who I am.

Since our time living on West Morgan Street, my husband and I have regularly attended CAC meetings. As my work schedule allowed, I also attended Kay Crowder’s Saturday morning DDNA meetings. When we moved into the Southwest CAC, I volunteered to be the Secretary, a position I held from October 2016 through February of 2020 when City Council ended support for the CAC structure. While Secretary, I provided monthly minutes of meetings, but also worked closely with other community members to increase our outreach via social media and we became one of the first CAC’s to regularly live-stream our meetings via Facebook.

The CAC structure wasn’t perfect, but one of its strengths was facilitating community engagement across City departments and deeper connection with City leaders. The City has redirected CAC funding to some valuable community engagement efforts, digitally streaming all council, board and commission meetings (a necessity during the pandemic), creating online engagement portals, and providing translation services at city-run meetings, but there’s still a lot we can do to improve community engagement.

Since March of 2020, I’ve co-led the Southwest Raleigh Community Engagement Forum, which replaced the former CAC. Each month, community members from the former Southwest and West CACs have met as citizens and residents to engage in conversations and hear updates from City staff on critical projects in our area of the City. With regular online zoom meetings over the past two years, the SWRCE forum has covered many topics and encouraged community led discussion at open meetings each quarter.

One of the most impactful projects in District D is the transformation of Dix Park into a Park for Everyone.

I’ve personally been involved since early in the Master Plan process, serving on the Master Plan Program Workgroup, and attending the regular meetings throughout the multi-year planning process. The public engagement for Dix Park was unprecedented in the City of Raleigh, with hundreds of meetings and thousands of residents providing input. Community engagement has played a crucial role in creating a 21st century park that belongs to everyone, holds the legacy and spiritual importance of the former plantation and mental health hospital, while also providing healing in the form of play, performance and public space.

Dix Park will have an equally impactful influence on the surrounding community.

Those of us that live close to the park have been outspoken about the need to be mindful of nearby neighborhoods since the beginning. As a member of the community leader group for the Dix Edge Study, I advocated for continued conversations between existing community members, new residents and developers planning much needed mixed-use retail centers and housing along Lake Wheeler Road. Maintaining existing affordable housing projects and creating opportunities for new affordable housing, both subsidized and market-rate, are important and I believe the Study plan outlines key ways to achieve those goals.

Ongoing investment in all our District parks and continued community engagement on public and private projects are key to working together to build a different, more sustainable and equitable future for Raleigh.

I have served on the Raleigh Transit Authority since April 2021. I was appointed by Stormie Forte, our current District councilor, upon making regular comments on the need to improve existing bus service, advocating in favor of the Bus Rapid Transit corridors along Western Blvd and S Saunders St in our district, and sharing my personal experiences as a transit rider. During my service on the RTA, the Board has moved forward several major initiatives. We have added seats to more bus stops, including all stops near public housing projects. We have kept buses free, reducing the risk involved in contact between operators and riders during the pandemic, but also providing much needed cost savings for the riders who needed to continue riding even in the pandemic.

Myself, and other members of the RTA have continued to advocate for fare free buses into next fiscal year, and hopefully beyond.

As a Board, we have emphasized the need for collaboration between the planning department and transportation department in equitably planning and implementing Bus Rapid Transit Corridors. Bus Rapid Transit or BRT is a core component of the Wake Transit Plan which was voted on by voters in 2016. BRT projects will build dedicated bus lanes to allow for faster, more reliable and frequent bus service along the busiest transit corridors in the City to the North, South, East and West. The first project along New Bern Ave begins construction later this year, with Western and Southern, both in District D following over the next 2-4 years. While improved bus service is a community asset, the impacts of growth in these areas is also real. I am optimistic that the systems we have in place for affordable housing and transit oriented development along the BRT will help ease these impacts and share the opportunities with existing residents and businesses.

I’ve often used my creative expertise to design, plan, market and run local events and festivals.  I spent several years co-organizing the designSPARK exhibits, including Raleigh’s first Barkitecture and first parklet design competition at our local, community-led, weird and lovely SPARKcon festival. And my work on the Second Saturday event series has brought dozens of local urban agriculture and food businesses together.

The purpose of Second Saturday was to bring attention to our local food system and the farmers who support it. The events and gatherings became a cornerstone of the local food movement in Raleigh, connecting farmers, restaurateurs, non-profits, schools and daycares all around issues of urban agriculture, food security, farming, cooking classes and food policy.

This work grounded the petition that myself, the Capital Area Food Network and dozens of other local non-profit and food organizations made to the City Council last March to ask them to include a Comprehensive Food Policy Plan in the City’s budget. An initiative that has not gained traction with the current Council and that I plan to prioritize if elected.

Most of all, I value working together to build solutions.

Over the last decade, my design and architecture work has given me first hand knowledge of what it takes to build great places. I’ve helped create some of the City’s favorite local businesses, including Two Roosters, Cortez, and The Cardinal while working at Matthew Konar Architect. As a local small business that works and relies on other small local businesses, I know how impactful and essential small businesses and the people behind them are to our City’s success.

There are so many local designers, architects, engineers, and developers who are investing time, energy and money into making our City a better place. From small, incremental projects like backyard tiny homes and first-time brick and mortar bakeries and restaurants up to larger projects that reimagine warehouses and old shopping centers into vibrant and active spaces where residents can live, shop, eat, work, and play. I’ve been a long term advocate that the more the designers and developers can engage and work with our community leaders, the better places we can build together.

I also worked for the City of Raleigh for over a decade as a cashier and swimming instructor in the Aquatics Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources. As a part-time employee I was welcomed into City employment by people dedicated to service in our community. Raleigh’s part-time employees add enormous value to the community centers and programs our residents experience every day. I’ve taught thousands of kids how to swim over the past decade at pools across the City, including Lake Johnson Pool, every summer. While being part of the Aquatics team, I have participated in many an evening in-service with my fellow Raleigh employees emphasizing the customer-first service we aim to provide as a City. Customer service and community engagement go hand in hand. Raleigh can do more to serve our residents and our employees.

If customer service matters when you visit a pool, then it matters in City Hall, too.

My family has also grown as we made Raleigh home.

My husband and I live in southwest Raleigh with our kids, dog and backyard chickens. As the wife of an essential worker and as a working mom to three young kids, I hope to bring a valuable and often missing voice to City Council. I am always thinking and discussing how to make Raleigh more welcoming for young families, particularly for those, like us, with tight budgets and growing expenses. You’ll find our family biking around town in our cargo bike, enjoying time in our front yard garden, or swimming at Lake Johnson Pool this summer.