About the Candidate

I am a native Mainer and have lived in Yarmouth for more than 30 years. I love everything Maine has to offer, and I believe Yarmouth is the quintessential Maine town.

Education

Bachelor’s in mechanical engineering, University of Maine; doctorate of medicine, Tufts Medical School; residency and fellowship at Harvard Medical School; master’s in economics and healthcare management, London School of Economics

Previous campaigns and elected office(s) held

None

Top three priorities

Affordability: Yarmouth has seen multi-year increases in property taxes. We need to find a way to offer relief, especially to those on fixed incomes and those with lower household incomes.

Environmental sustainability: We must do everything we can to make our climate/environment healthy and sustainable for our children and grandchildren.

Equity: We must work to keep our town safe and nurturing for all residents regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation or religion.

Why are you running?

I am running for Town Council to help assure our town remains affordable for all residents. I am also very interested in maintaining a sustainable environment given our fragile ecosystem as a coastal town.

What is the biggest challenge facing your community? The biggest opportunity?

The biggest opportunity in Yarmouth is our property tax burden. I will work with local officials and state legislators to help ease our tax burden and, hopefully, create a property tax system that is more progressive than our current system.

If you could change one thing about how your community functions, what would it be and why?

I believe the previous town councils have been responsive to the residents, but I do believe we need to be even more diligent about our level of municipal and school spending.

Do you support more development in your community? Why or why not?

I do support more building in Yarmouth, especially business development since it will add to the tax base without increased use of services (primarily our schools). I do support housing development, given I am such a strong advocate for our town. I believe it would be disingenuous to not allow others to live in our great town. That said, with housing growth comes service expansion. We need to be very watchful of how that growth occurs.