What is your professional experience?

I worked as a researcher and administrative assistant at the Center for Integrative Development (now defunct), an organization that advised developing countries on how to develop and integrate new and renewable sources of energy into their energy production strategy. I worked for several years at Hudson Institute as a researcher on their international trade and economic studies, after working on their education studies.

What is your public office experience?

have run before but not held office

If applicable, please list offices you have run for or held.

I ran for Congress in 2024 and was the Democratic Nominee for Indiana's 5th Congressional District.

What are the specific skills that you bring to the position for which you are running?

My knowledge of and experience with public policy issues began with a college internship working on election law issues, including gerrymandering, for a New York based non-profit called Citizens Union. It was further nurtured as a researcher and administrative assistant with the Center for Integrative Development focussed on new and renewable sources of energy in developing countries. I continued to build my knowledge and experience with public policy issues at Hudson Institute researching international economic and trade issues for their clients which included legislators, US government agencies, and private companies. My military experience as a former US Army Reservist who served as a behavioral science specialist with the 55th Medical Detachment and then as an intelligence analyst with the 21st Support Command has given me first hand knowledge of the vast array of issues facing military personnel and their families, as well as the importance of data collection and analysis critical for developing military strategy and operations. Additionally, my many years of raising my two daughters and son and being a community activist by serving on community boards and school committees has given me insight into the heart and soul of a community and the many challenges facing families. I have been a enthusiastic advocate for the young as a reading tutor and mentor, and a vocal advocate for seniors through my participation on the board of directors for Hooverwood Living. I have also served in many different capacities on my homeowners association board and have experience overseeing and managing large budgets. My ability to work with people of all backgrounds to solve problems and get things done is an important skill for a legislator in this divisive political landscape.

What are your top 3 priorities if you are elected?

My top 3 priorities are: 1. Serving with integrity and competence as a US Representative; 2. Reclaiming congressional authority from our authoritarian president, reconstituting and reestablishing, and refunding critical government agencies; and 3. Fighting for our Constitutional rights and making sure our government works effectively and responsibly to honor its many commitments to Hoosiers.

How do your values motivate your run for office?

My values and principles are core to my passion and desire to make the world a better place for my loved ones including my family, my community and my country. My values and principles are desperately needed in Congress to restore and refine competent government services, and to rebuild faith in good governance.

Key Issues

Please share with us your position on a number of issues that are key for Muncie Resists and describe what actions you would take with regard to them. We recognize that some elected positions may not have a direct role in addressing some of these issues, but if you had an opportunity to have an impact, what would you want that to be?

What have you done and/or what do you commit to doing to support the rights of

a. LGBTQ+ individuals?

Over the years, I have spoken out in favor of LGBTQ+ rights and would support codifying their protections at the federal level. It is appalling to see the treatment and attacks on their rights at both the national and state level. No citizen should ever have to worry about their life being under threat or their rights eliminated because of their personal relationships and desire to be true to themselves.

b. people with disabilities?

My grandmother was paralyzed from the waist down with Polio and my aunt had Down Syndrome. Not only did I cherish with all my heart my beloved grandmother, but I was the trustee for the Trust she created to care for my aunt with Down Syndrome. I remember clearly the challenges my grandmother faced with housing and infrastructure designs that inhibited her movement. I am deeply grateful for the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and would continue to support funding that allows people with disabilities to pursue their educational and employment dreams. Additionally, I am an avid supporter of vaccines and have seen firsthand the extraordinary hardship created by deadly and crippling viruses and diseases. As your US Representative, I will support funding for vaccine research and development and vote to restore the United States Agency for International Development. USAID played a critical role helping developing countries with their vaccination campaigns, while also leading efforts to help remote communities build their food and health services. Good health impacts our quality of life, our ability to interact with the world, and our economic prospects. The return on dollar investments is incalculable in saving lives and ensuring good health for our citizens.

c. people experiencing poverty?

Over the decades and in different capacities, my husband and I have assisted families experiencing poverty with both financial assistance and the commitment of time. We have mentored children navigating the foster care system, paid for them to go to summer camp, and spent hours and years giving them our time and attention. I have helped the mother with section 8 housing, paid for dental care, introduced her to food pantries, paid for groceries, and helped her navigate the judicial system. The most important lesson that I tried to demonstrate and support was a commitment to education and learning through hard work and self-discipline. I did this as a reading tutor and mentor, and introduced the children to many experiences to broaden their view of the world and to provide context for their school education. Dollar investments in early childhood education and mentoring services for inexperienced mothers are critical in helping to develop and instill the necessary habits for success that allow a young person to grow into a young adult ready for the challenges of a rapidly evolving world. Most times, mothers were raising large families without a husband or partner. They were overwhelmed with their responsibilities, poorly equipped to make good decisions and intimidated by educators given their own bad experiences with school. Federal dollars for education and for programs like Medicaid and SNAP are critical to help Hoosiers overcome poverty through the development of skills and good decision making. The most important lesson I have learned is the extraordinary value of long term, supportive and loving relationships that allow trust to build and hard conversations to occur that lead to good decisions and positive action. Federal dollars and well functioning government agencies are critical, but just as important is someone taking a person struggling with poverty under their wing and helping them work toward self-sufficiency and independence.

d. immigrants?

Immigrants are invaluable to our communities and enrich them in numerous ways. They are also a critical source of labor for many industries and businesses which struggle with labor shortages. While I am grateful for the many contributions of immigrants, Americans want a reformed immigration system that is humane, bound by law, and allows for the speedy processing of immigrants. As your US Representative, I would work to ensure our immigration system has the legal expertise, the judges and the resources to perform this critical function efficiently and effectively. The contribution of immigrants to our society is even more imperative given that Americans are having fewer children and are in need of manpower to help with the care of our aging population and in need of workers to help finance programs like social security into the future.

e. people who are racial or ethnic minorities/minoritized individuals?

I grew up in a military family and from a very early age was exposed to people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds through my father's military service and our diverse living experiences. My appreciation and love for foreign cultures, inspired from an early age, has nurtured a great respect and fascination for the history and stories of people with different backgrounds than mine. It appalls me to see how our current administration speaks of and treats others who look differently from them. It is also terrible for public discourse and the antithesis of the American spirit that celebrates diversity and love for freedom and justice. I will conduct myself as your US Representative with decorum, condemn words and actions of discrimination, and support legislation that protects the rights of these individuals.

What have you done and/or what do you commit to doing to support voter access? (This might include your position on vote centers, polling hours, voter IDs, signature matching, the SAVE act, etc.)

As a passionate supporter of voter rights, I am a paying member of Muncie Resists and the ACLU which both fight for voter rights and voter access. Before running for public office, I was a poll worker and took great pride in my role ensuring elections were run with integrity and proper oversight. It is a democratic duty that is important to being an American. I have contacted my legislators at the federal level to express my strong opposition to the Save Act and any measure that places undue burden on the voter to verify their identity or to cast their vote.

In recent months, federal agencies have overstepped the power of local and state governments. In what contexts would you support resistance by local officials?

The recent actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), against the wishes of governors and mayors, have been disruptive to communities, costly to businesses and unconstitutional. In many cases, ICE agents have outnumbered local enforcement officers. Fortunately, governors and mayors have demanded the withdrawal of ICE agents and filed federal law suits. Organizations like the ACLU have used their legal prowess to challenge the constitutionality of ICE actions and protesters have taken to the streets to protest, protect their neighbors and stand up for their rights. All of these legal measures of resistance I support and some I have supported with my own participation or dollar contributions.

In recent months, federal agencies have overstepped the constitutional rights of the people. How would you protect and defend our constitutional rights?

We are seeing an authoritarian leader put in place a regime that consolidates his power and suppresses the voice of the people. This has been allowed to happen by a Congress that has surrendered its many legislative responsibilities and failed to act to restrain this president's actions. It started with Senate confirmation of Mr. Trump's corrupt and incompetent cabinet members and agency heads unfit and unworthy of the serious job required of them. These federal agencies have also been degraded by the firing of professionals with integrity and loyalty to the US Constitution. There is currently no proper transparency or oversight of these federal agencies. It will take a lot of serious work with my colleagues in Congress to restore the integrity of these agencies and to rebuild their professionalism and mission of serving the American people. I will start by upholding my oath of service to the US Constitution and to my fellow Americans and Hoosiers who voted for me to represent their voice and their rights in Congress.

What have you done and/or what do you commit to doing to support healthcare access for all?

One of my most important policy priorities as your US Representative is to support healthcare access for all. I will vote to reinstate healthcare subsidies for those getting their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act exchanges. I will also vote to ensure funding is restored for Medicaid to allow for the funding of local health centers where women can get needed specialized health care. However Congress must work to reform healthcare where Americans can have health insurance untethered to an employer, in which it is easy to access good health care at affordable rates, by well trained physicians.

What have you done and/or what do you commit to doing to address the affordability of

housing costs?

The high cost of housing is attributed to many factors which include the investment strategies of companies that bought homes at distressed values during the financial crises in 2008 and 2009; the reluctance of homeowners with favorable mortgage rates to sell their homes for another home with a higher mortgage rates; the cost of construction aggravated by a huge shortage of construction workers due to a chaotic immigration policy; and construction materials with sky high prices attributed to a punitive tariff policy that taxes imported supplies from other countries. Reforming our immigration policy to allow for more workers and eliminating or substantially reducing tariffs will lower housing costs. I am not in favor of reducing environmental regulations to allow for building in wetlands or higher density that compromises green space for healthier air quality or soil erosion control.

food costs?

High food costs are related to a number of factors which include: the bird flu, high tariffs on fertilizers used to grow crops, a shortage of workers to harvest crops, tariffs on imported goods like coffee, rebellions in cocoa producing countries that reduce the supply of cocoa for many products, and severe weather events caused by climate changes, as well as high property insurance costs. These are complicated matters that require a deep understanding of the many factors that impact prices if lawmakers want to address the fundamental cause of price increases. Immigration reform, elimination of tariffs, reestablishment of trade treaties that reduce costs and barriers to entry into our country would all lower food costs.

healthcare costs?

The United States has a fragmented healthcare system that is also a world leader in medical research and development. If you have a serious condition, people will come from all corners of the world to be treated at our cancer centers and to undergo treatments for rare conditions. Despite these extraordinary achievements, many Americans suffer from lack of access to good health care and prohibitively high costs. There are a number of reasons why healthcare costs are so high. It can depend on whether or not a patient lives in a rural or urban setting and if there are many or a few healthcare providers in the area competing for patients. High healthcare costs also depend on the health of the population and unfortunately Americans have a number of complicated health issues related to their diets which are costly to treat. Many hospital systems face a shortage of nursing staff and physicians with desired specialities that take years to be trained in at very expensive schools of medicine. High healthcare costs have also been instigated by government policies and medicare reimbursement rates that encouraged the construction of large medical facilities sometimes at the expense of offering more generous reimbursement rates for patient care. There is also an inequity in the current system where people on Medicare receive more in benefits than what they paid into the system. A large overhaul of our healthcare system by health policy experts is necessary to address the fundamental high costs of healthcare for the American people. This will be a top priority of mine. Our health is critical to our ability to care for ourselves and our families.

What have you done and/or what do you commit to doing to support discussion about science, history, and gender as necessary parts of educating children in our schools?

My children were raised to love and appreciate history and science and to be respectful of people's differences and personal preferences. All three of my children were either history or political science majors at state universities, and all share a reverence for our US Constitution and commitment to its ideals. One daughter served her country in the US Army Reserve as a civil affairs specialist and my son is an attorney who currently works in the Treasury Department. I am now running for office to fight for the democratic principles that are taught in history and civics classes. Like so many of my fellow Americans who are protesting and calling their lawmakers, I hope my willingness to run for office and represent the voice of the people in the 5th District shows my commitment to the principles of democracy that are highlighted in history lessons. It is also our democratic institutions that allow for great scientific and medical discoveries which I try to emphasize in my speeches on the campaign trail.

What have you done and/or what do you commit to doing to support public education?

An educated citizenry is critical for a functioning democracy. I have always supported public education as foundational for educating our citizens and building resilient communities. I have acted on it by sending my children to public schools and by serving on many public school committees as a parent representative on issues ranging from literacy to science curriculum and text book selection. I have had more experience supporting the public school system through my children's attendance and as a reading tutor and mentor than any other 5th District Congressional candidate. I have also seen up close the repercussions of terrible education policy decisions made by Indiana lawmakers, and the long term impact on our students. This is the wonderful thing about my age and experience. I have a long term perspective of good and bad policy decisions made by our lawmakers at the federal and state level.

What do you think should be Indiana’s priority in terms of the electrical grid and energy generation sources? What have you done and/or what do you commit to do regarding a clean energy economy?

We need to have many serious conversations with our constituents about their energy use which continues to explode with the development and usage of artificial intelligence. Many daily activities, communications and transactions occur on our computers and electronic devices. Documents are stored in "the cloud" which are massive servers that require megawatts to operate and water to cool. Many do not understand that these activities require a lot of energy to run, negatively impact our natural resource base, and can have serious health consequences for those who live near data centers. There is a huge cost to build the infrastructure necessary to support all these activities, and to connect all the different energy sources to the power grid. Until people understand the costs of their activities and Indiana lawmakers are willing to have honest conversations with their constituents, bad policy decisions will be made.

What have you done and/or what do you commit to doing to make your specific area of government more transparent to your constituents?

One of the first steps I will take as your next US Representative is to restore the Inspectors General that Mr. Trump fired upon taking office. They serve the important function of monitoring government agencies and ensuring accountability to Congress and the American people. I will also make sure that agencies (like the Congressional Budget Office and General Accounting Office) that gather data and provide analysis on budgetary issues, programs and tax policy proposals are well funded and well staffed with critical expertise so that lawmakers understand the costs and benefits of their legislative decisions. I will also rehire experienced department heads who were fired by the president because he disliked their unbiased and nonpartisan analysis, like the director of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. I will also work with colleagues to restore the reporting requirements and information that government agencies posted on their websites to keep Americans informed about their government. This administration disdains government transparency and accountability and has taken America into the dark.

Do you have any questions? Is there anything else you would like to share?