Every person in Lexington deserves to feel welcome, included, and safe. As a member of the Select Board, I will continue to work to ensure that everyone feels a sense of belonging and full membership in Lexington and that the Town embraces diversity, promotes mutual understanding, and addresses issues of equity and inclusion, in all its policies and procedures. I will always ask how can we better serve the needs of every resident and create a more accepting and inclusive tomorrow.

The Select Board and School Committee are committed to ensuring that Lexington is a welcoming and inclusive community. Unfortunately not everyone in Lexington feels included, welcome or safe. We can and should be doing more to ensure that we treat every member of our community fairly and justly.

I support the School Committee and Superintendent’s recently launched Call to Action on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, that has identified specific steps to understand and address the root causes of the disproportionate rates of discipline for students of color and students with special needs that we are seeing in our schools.

The Call to Action report identifies that LGBTQ+ students are 2 to 3x more likely to be bullied and four times more likely than their peers to consider suicide. We need to do more to establish a culture where it is truly safe and affirming for everyone to be who you really are. That includes outreach and communication to the community at large as well as providing adequate staff of mental health experts and counselors with the training needed address these issues.

On the municipal side, I would focus on examining Town policies, procedures, guidelines, and communications for bias or barriers that might lead to inequitable outcomes or prevent full participation. We should also be designing our buildings with diversity and inclusion in mind. I embrace and support the Select Board and Town staff efforts to provide language translation support for residents for whom English may not be their first language.

I support efforts to understand whether some of our residents experience disproportionate outcomes when interacting with the Town’s police and fire departments and other municipal services. We must also ensure that our hiring, interviewing and promotion process results in Town staff that truly represent the diversity of our students and residents.

I support the excellent work done by many organizations including CAAL, CaLEX, KoLex, IAL, iGIG, ABCL, and LexPride to ensure that members of their communities are adequately represented among Lexington’s elected leaders and are actively engaged on Lexington’s many volunteer boards and committees.

Ensuring equitable access and a safe work environment for women is also critically important. In my first management position – I managed a team of 50% women and men. I ensured that all the women and men on the team received equal compensation. This was at a time when the overall ratio of women in this position within my company was only 2% female. Our team became the fastest growing team in the country over the next three years.

Later in my career I opened and managed offices around the world all staffed with local employees in Asia and in Europe. We made much wiser decisions as a company by including their voices in setting our strategic direction. The same will be true for our Town. In my personal life, I have taken a six week course on White Privilege and attend an open and affirming church.

Our goal as a Town is to bring traditionally excluded individuals and/or groups into decision and policymaking in a way that fairly and equitably shares power. An inclusive environment is one where any individual or group is welcomed, respected, supported, and valued to fully participate.

We are stronger when we have a diversity of opinions and all voices are considered. That includes listening to a fair and equitable representation of voices considering race, ethnicity, language, appearance, sexual orientation, and gender, but also age, national origin, religion, disability, and socioeconomic status.

How can Lexington better serve the needs of every resident and create a more accepting and inclusive tomorrow? A good way to start is by asking that question everyday and ensuring that all voices are heard during that conversation.