About me
My husband and I have lived in Fairfax City for more than 39 years. After having lived in the Midwest and on the West Coast, Fairfax City is our home. We care for the city: We buy from the shops here, we enjoy each other’s company in the restaurants here, we sit quietly in our city’s parks to enjoy breaks from our busy lives, and we walk our dogs in our neighborhood.
I have a varied background in business. Early in my career, I managed a store that went from losing money for the preceding seven years to turning a profit and did it during an economic downturn. I did this by building the team: I drew on each member’s skills and ideas and together we streamlined processes, developed good relationships with vendors and music distributors, and we achieved our goals. I learned firsthand the power of a highly collaborative and creative team.
For Eugene, Oregon, then a city with a population of about 125,000, I worked as a programmer on the team that developed and implemented an expenditure system that touched every city department, including constituent services. Working collaboratively with stakeholders, we analyzed requirements, designed, developed, tested, and successfully deployed each system module.
For the next 40 years I worked in the public and private sectors in software development, project and program management, and capital planning and investment control. I am most proud of the disaster response and recovery systems we built for FEMA. Through collaboration, we reached consensus on what to do, and I led the execution of the solution. As Mayor, I will apply this same dedication and team-based, collaborative approach to addressing the City’s problems.
I am currently the president of Cambridge Station, a self-managed Homeowners Association (HOA) established sixty years ago. I also serve as our Grounds and Maintenance (G&M) chair. We strive to make Cambridge Station a safe, livable, and beautiful community. Consequently, in addition to maintaining the HOA on a fiscally sound foundation, we have to address a number of specific near- and long-term issues, including renewing an ageing infrastructure, managing our common green spaces and mature tree canopy, and ensuring child safety in our HOA’s park.