Occupation / Current Position
Instructor, Grand Rapids Community College
Education
East Kentwood High School, Indiana University Bloomington (B.A. History and Political Science,) Harvard University (M.Ed. Administration, Planning, and Social Policy,) GRCC
Qualifications and Experience
I have more than 20 years of public service experience, including elected office, public education leadership, community organizing, nonprofit management, and policy leadership at the MI Dept. of Ed.
As a career educator, I deeply respect Michigan’s educators and understand the structural challenges they face. Over-testing must be addressed, but the greatest obstacle is inadequate funding. We must protect School Aid Fund dollars, adopt a more equitable funding formula, and meet the true cost of educating students. Just as importantly, we must pay educators a professional wage. Michigan’s teacher shortage is not a mystery—low pay, rising costs, shrinking benefits, and limited resources are driving educators away. Public education is the foundation of democracy, and strengthening it begins with investing in the people who make it possible.
I am committed to building a worker-centered economy that prioritizes working people over corporate profits and special interests. That means ending ineffective corporate incentives, ensuring everyone pays their fair share in taxes, and raising the minimum wage to a true thriving wage. I strongly support labor unions, collective bargaining, local control over labor standards, and protections for workers seeking to organize. To truly address affordability, we must also guarantee healthcare as a right through a universal, single-payer system that ensures access to needed care for every Michigander.
We must reduce the influence of monopoly utilities and hold them accountable for rising rates, unreliable service, and their outsized power in Lansing. I support stronger consumer protections, infrastructure investments, expanded rooftop solar, and pathways to publicly owned utilities. I support Michigan’s clean energy goals, a pause on data center expansion until appropriate and guaranteed safeguards are in place, and ending public subsidies for private data centers. I also support polluter-pay and cumulative impacts laws to ensure corporate accountability and protection for overburdened communities in pursuit of environmental justice.
State government has a responsibility to protect the civil rights of all residents, regardless of immigration status. I support prohibiting collaboration between federal immigration agents and state and local law enforcement without a judicial warrant, strengthening habeas corpus protections in the Michigan Constitution, prohibiting immigration detention centers in Michigan, and protecting certain spaces from immigration enforcement to prevent the suppression of 1st Amendment rights. I also support the prosecution of any and all persons for the violation of individuals’ rights under these expanded state laws to the fullest extent possible.
Occupation / Current Position
Owner - Metas LLC
Education
B.S. Political Science – Grand Valley State University (GVSU) Emphasis: Quantitative & statistical analysis + qualitative research methods
Qualifications and Experience
Award-winning entrepreneur and inventor of managed label services. Criminal justice reformer and former legislative aide to State Sen. Mark C. Jansen. Known for extraordinary act of forgiveness.
Michigan is spending at historic highs on K-12 education, yet we rank 44th in the nation in 4th grade reading comprehension. Nearly 40% of our fourth graders are on a path to a lifetime of welfare or prison. We are spending more while our children are falling behind. We need an all-hands-on-deck approach to solving this problem and should look at all forms of solutions. Our kids are too important. Practically speaking, we should give parents more choice and options, give teachers more resources, and cut duplicate administrative spending so we can redirect it to the classrooms where our teachers and kids need it most.
Michigan was once the manufacturing powerhouse of the world. We can lead again by lowering the cost of doing business; reducing energy and insurance costs, slashing red tape and regulations that hurt small businesses, and eliminating the state income tax. These same policies will attract new companies while directly lowering housing, energy, and insurance costs for Michigan families.
We must invest in our entrepreneurs and skilled trades training instead of favoring large corporations. Michigan has a serious trades shortage driving up building costs. Lowering business costs here will create more well-paying jobs and make life more affordable.
Michigan ranks dead last in the nation for energy reliability and has the highest energy costs in the Midwest. If we stay on the current path, costs could triple in the next decade. We must reject ideological policies that raise costs for working families (hurting the most vulnerable the worst) and push businesses out of Michigan. The common sense solution is adopting modular nuclear power, which delivers safe, reliable, affordable, and clean energy that strengthens Michigan’s economy and protects families from skyrocketing bills. Don't take my word for it; research the options for yourself and you'll reach the same conclusion.
The Constitution protects persons physically present in the United States with basic due process rights. However, immigration removal is a civil proceeding, not a criminal prosecution, so the full range of criminal trial rights does not apply. The current enforcement framework, including expedited removal, comes from the 1996 law signed by President Clinton with bipartisan support. The Supreme Court has upheld Congress's broad authority over immigration many times. I support lawful enforcement of federal immigration law. Any changes should come through Congress.
